


What to Expect (when you're not expecting)

by MockerDelight



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Court Politics, F/F, F/M, Female Character of Color, Female Friendship, For Want of a Nail, Gen, Language Barrier, M/M, Mid-Time Skip, Other, POV Female Character, Post-Time Skip, Prostitution, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-21 00:04:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 12
Words: 33,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14272476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MockerDelight/pseuds/MockerDelight
Summary: The thing about superpowers is that it sucks when you don't have them.





	1. Let's Get Ready To Rumble

**Author's Note:**

> So...Naruto SI/OC, it was gonna come up eventually. I wanted to build some world around the original story and this idea has been swimming in my brainpan for months. I'm going a roundabout way, adjacent to canon. 'Cuz why go around making a whole alien race and calling someone the Rabbit Goddess of a continent that is hinted at being not the only one in the world. What was everything like before she got there? What pantheons did they worship before chakra? Summon animals mastering chakra and forming societies after growing due to chakra in the 20+ years it took Kaguya's kids the grow up?  
> Yeah I wanna mess with that.

Angelica woke up outside.

It took her a moment to blink past her incredible headache to actually process something other than the fact that there was grass tickling the back of her neck and that she smelled roasted chestnuts.

After what felt like hours she forced herself to sit-up, slowly, to avoid hurling up the sloshing alcohol in her stomach. Her vision was a blur of green and brown, glasses lost, and she wondered if her friends had left her to pass out in a public park. It seemed unlikely, seeing as Tadashi had been trailing after her for most of the night, chewing his nails over her free spirited wandering. His numerous warnings about not knowing Japanese and getting lost in Tokyo ignored in her quest for more drinks and people to flirt with.

Something rustled and Angelica felt a phantom of silk across the back of her knuckles. She wiggled her fingers to get rid of the sensation, just as something quadruped stepped out of the trees.

She stared at the brown blob as she felt around for her glasses, quietly. Something lighter brown was sticking out from its head so she assumed it was a deer or something. It could also be a really weird looking mutated rabies dog.

She didn’t find her glasses.

She screamed when something came whistling out of the trees, striking the deer-thing and filling the air with the scent of blood. She choked when her tongue curled with the taste of sour apple, right before she threw up on the grass. Listening to the dying noises of the stag a few feet away she heaved, vision blurry with reflexive tears.

A chatter of voices rose as she felt a sensation like a spider crawling up her spine. She moaned, and worried that she had hit her head somehow. There was no explanation for the random sensations that were hitting her with no cause.

The words spoken where Japanese, or at least something close. Angelica suddenly understood Tadashi’s worry, because both of the voices were male. It was all fine and good when she had her friends by her side and she was out in public, but alone in a wooded area with no way to see clearly and with no friends, meeting two men became dangerous.

A hand came to rest on her back.

“Are you alright?” the one with the gravely voice asked, making her nose fill with the scent of lavender.

Her grasp of Japanese was fairly restricted to phrases like ‘ _help’, ‘where’s the bathroom’,_ and _‘more booze’,_ but she knew that phrase.

“Help,” she said in the same language.

She looked up into the man’s face, close enough for her to make out features. He looked to be older, probably in his late 40’s. He grimaced at her rank breath, but looked to his companion, who made a wide gesture.

A quick conversation followed.

Before she knew it she was being helped up while the older man’s companion grabbed the stag. He must have been strong, because the carcass nearly dwarfed him when he swung it over his shoulders with ease.

_Since when can people hunt wild game in Tokyo?_

The walk to wherever they were trying to go took awhile, slowed by Angelica’s clumsy progress. It took no time at all to realize her rescuers couldn’t understand English. She tried Korean and Spanish just to be on the safe side, but got no recognition from the two men.

At some point the younger man split off, leaving her with his grumpy partner. An awkward silence spread between them as Angelica nursed her headache and the smell of lemon cleaner that assaulted her nose. She peered around her, but she could only make out the vague shape of trees.

Sandpaper rubbed roughly over her outer thigh and she jerked, knocking into her companion, only to find nothing touching her and her pant leg intact. The older man bore her behavior with wilting patience.

He sagged with visible relief as something cream colored became visible through the trees. Angelica couldn’t blame him, she _was_ pretty off-putting right now; twitching every few seconds, making faces at imaginary tastes and scents, and smelling like she went on a 10-hour bar crawl through the streets of Tokyo.

She was practically _sweating_ alcohol.

Not to mention she didn’t speak his language except from the initial begging for help and a request for water. She’d drained his canteen the moment she got it, smiling sheepishly at his annoyed expression.

At the end of the forest trail, now road, was a wall. It was made of pale stone and had an opening that she assumed was a gate. Her unease grew as the smell of sewage and mint filled her nose, causing her to gag. Not only had they been walking for thirty minutes in dense forest, a rarity in _urban fucking Tokyo_ , but she couldn’t see any skyscrapers.

Cotton rubbed insistently at her ankle as the sensation of snakeskin wrapped around her bicep. She hissed with irritation and scowled as her guide sped up, unnerved by her behavior and muttering something that sounded like, ‘ _crazy girl’._ She restrained herself from letting loose any of the swears she’d learned on her party circuit in Japan.

The only explanation was that she had somehow boarded a train or bus or _something_ and ended up in the countryside.

_But that doesn’t make sense._

Tadashi had been on her ass the whole night, cock-blocking her and being a general killjoy. There was no way the man would let her run off, and she had no chance of escaping a collegiate athlete in strappy shoes and skinny jeans. He and Hitoshi were great friends, really, but they had underestimated the amount of partying she and Sooyoung got up to on the regular. She couldn’t blame them, in the daylight she was pretty dorky and studious. The education outreach program they had met through hadn’t left them with much time to party, so they never really got into much trouble.

She also wasn’t carrying her wallet or cell, which she had given to Tadashi after she bolted down her fifth shot the night before.

Any inquiry she made about phones was met with confused grumbling. She would actually have to be in an extremely remote part of Japan if the guy didn’t know what a _telephone_ was.

As they approached the gate the sounds of foot traffic became louder. People talking and yelling, and if Angelica wasn’t mistaken the creak of wagon wheels. No smell of diesel and no sound of car engines.

Unease curled in her stomach as they drew closer and the sensation of sour candy scraped at the roof of her mouth.

It was a blur of color and noise at that point, she ended up clinging to the old man’s sleeve. People pushed them to and fro, uncaring as they made their way into what turned out to be an open-air market. Her nose wrinkled against a wave of citrus scent, momentarily drowning out the smell of livestock as an ox-pulled cart lumbered past them.

_A freaking cart, pulled by an animal._

She was so immersed with the market and the new colors that she ran into her guide when he came to a sudden stop.

A building stood before them, tall and decorated with bright signage. The man pulled her into the alley besides the building, stopping in front of a dull gray door.

The man knocked on the metal impatiently, the rap of his knuckles too loud in Angelica’s sensitive ears.

She whipped around when a pressure landed on her shoulder, only to hiss when she saw nothing. When she turned back around there was a woman leaning in the doorway, smoke curling from what could only be a pipe in her hand.

They exchanged words rapidly, and Angelica tried helplessly to keep up. She gave a startled grunt when the man grabbed her arm and pulled her forward to be inspected.

Angelica could only goggle into the green eyes of the woman who studied her. Up close she could see definite mileage on the taller woman’s face, despite that, she was a stunning beauty, enhanced by her sparse makeup. Her hands were grasped and brought up to be investigated, the woman’s lips twitched.

She asked a question.

The man answered by slapping Angelica in the back, _hard_.

“What the fuck!” she yelped.

“What the hell, man, I’m about to slap you so hard your granny is gonna feel it in her grave,” she snarled, trying to turn away, only to be held in place by the surprisingly good grip the mysterious woman had on her hands.

The older woman hummed, intrigued.

More words were exchanged while a sense of foreboding settled on Angelica’s shoulders. All of the downright impossible things leading up to this point were adding up to a menacing sum. This didn’t seem like two people discussing a way to help a foreigner; it felt like a business transaction. Angelica began to struggle in earnest, only to be kept in place with little to no effort on the woman’s part. The older woman merely moved her hands up, gripping Angelica’s forearms. The woman may be taller, but she shouldn’t be finding it easy to pin the girl.

Angelica was fit, she may have not been a college athlete but she was no slouch in her conditioning, even after graduating high school. Panic began to clutch at Angelica’s chest when the woman called inside the building. A younger woman dressed in revealing clothes appeared, clutching a stack of notes that definitely _weren’t yen_.

Angelica whimpered when the man took the money with a satisfied grunt, and said a cheerful goodbye. The girl took a moment out of her struggle to yell after him, cursing him and commentating on his sordid sexual relations with various farm animals.

Despite her struggle she was dragged inside the building.

The door swung closed behind her with a click.

.

.

.

It was a brothel.

A small one, but it seemed high quality if the contents of the kitchen were anything to go by. Angelica sighed as she pulled meat buns from the oven. Haru muttered something and snapped her towel at the young woman, causing her to yelp.

“Room 25,” she said slowly, setting a bowl of broth on a tray with a spoon.

“Yes ma’am.”

Angelica set the buns down to cool, ripping off her oven mitts and wiping her hands on her apron, before grabbing the tray and hurrying from the kitchen.

It had been three months since she had ended up here. Despite the rude introduction and borderline slave sale that had been her entrance to the _Lotus_ , she had not been forced to be a prostitute. As it was, none of the girls in the establishment were forced to be whores, though an argument could be made that the choice between poverty and possible death and selling your body wasn’t much of a choice at all.

Despite the language barrier when she had first been brought in, through an elaborate game of charades and _many_ drawings, she had been able to convince the owner that she wasn’t a foreign prostitute. That had been the other woman’s assumption after seeing her clothes and soft hands.

Mama, as most of the employees called her, had seen a business opportunity. She had an outstanding offer to the whole town that she would offer money to anyone who could bring women in need of a job to her, a finder’s fee. It was a sound business practice, considering most of the women who voluntarily signed on got the initial payment for themselves.

The woman had been disappointed to learn that Angelica not a whore and had no interest in pursuing the profession. However, she had been helpful in providing Angelica with a map, which had sent the woman once again spiraling into hysteria. The map had no recognizable landmarks and _hadn’t even looked like Japan._

It was a confirmation of the suspicion that had been forming in the back of her mind since she had woken up in the forest.

_I’m a fucking Isekai protagonist._

Falling into another world had been so far outside of the possibilities she had considered that she couldn’t quite believe it.

Mama, seeing her distress, had offered her a job. Not as a prostitute, but as a helper in the kitchen. It would help pay off the initial debt Angelica had incurred, and the matron would provide room and board for the stranded foreign girl. Afraid and grateful, Angelica had jumped on the offer, leading her to her current situation.

“Sacchan _,”_ she called, knocking on the door. The Arabic numbers _25_  hung from a nail, inscribed on a bronze plaque.

There was groan from inside.

Angelica sighed, and knocked harder.

“Sacchan! It’s time to eat,” she sang at her most annoying pitch.

“No _,”_ a voice groaned faintly.

Angelica grunted, and carefully moved the tray so it was propped on her hip. She reached into her apron and came out with a skeleton key, which she used to open the door.

“Sacchan, don’t lay, need food stay sick,” her Japanese had come a long way, or whatever one called the language of this world. She could hardly call herself fluent in the amount of time she had spent here, but she could get her point across in most situations.

Nothing like total immersion to jumpstart learning a new language.

The room she walked into was dim, lit only by the light leaking from the open doorway. A lump squirmed on the simple futon backed into one of the corners, and the rice paper door on one wall was thrown open, revealing Sacchan’s ‘entertainment room’ for customers. Angelica picked her way across the floor strewn with clothes and snack wrappers after shutting the door behind her. She avoided tripping easily, the room and its contents illuminated in her mind with glowing energy.

That had been a surprise.

After her first few weeks of jumping at imaginary sensations and smells, she had woken up one morning able to tell exactly where everyone in the house was as well as their mood. The random power had surprised her, despite the fact that she had witnessed people _jumping over buildings_ in the time she had had arrived in Tanzaku. Funnily enough, after dealing with random smell attacks and sensory overload, the ability to sense people and eventually objects was actually a relief.

The only thing she could feel from Sachiko was vague nausea and drowsiness, a sharp spark of pain flared in the woman’s energy when Angelica slid the rice paper door closed after turning the light on in her business room. It caused the woman less pain than the overhead lights would have, but it made her headache flare nevertheless.

The girl moaned and sat up, naked with the blankets pooling around her waist. Angelica giggled at her sluggish movements.

Sachiko glared at the woman with puffy eyes and made a grabby motion for her soup. Angelica quickly set it on the woman’s lap as she began picking up the trash in the room.

 _“_ Isn’t this…day? _”_ she mumbled. Angelica guessed the meaning from what she could understand from the sentence.

Angelica hummed as she threw a kimono top into the laundry basket.

 _“_ Yes, no work, but Haru _,”_ Angelica scowled, searching for the phrase she needed, _“_ but Lotus busy, many girls stay, want lunch _.”_

Sachiko squinted. Her energy rippled with muted surprise.

“…glasses, for your eyes…day in the town.”

Angelica smiled, a small bit a bitterness lodging in her throat.

She had just paid off her debt the week before, she was being paid for her work fully now. The first thing she had done was go to the small clinic at the edge of Tanzaku, the only one that would deal with a girl from the whorehouse. Her prescription was supposed to be ready today. She had been over the moon, planning to pick up her glasses and visit some of the shops. One of the clothing shops had one of the most prettily embroidered scarves she had seen since coming to this world. She had planned to go out and make it a shopping day, maybe visit some of the food stands that were set up in the central market.

“I can go tomorrow,” she said with forced cheer. Then she repeated herself the best she could in the other woman’s language.

“I can go tomorrow,” Sachiko corrected absently, slurping her soup.

By the time the woman was finished with her food, the room had been picked up. When Angelica stepped forward to retrieve the tray Sachiko stopped her.

The woman pulled her close by the wrist and tapped her ear, telling the other woman to listen closely.

“Go. To. Town. Aicchan.” She leaned back tiredly, “Haru lived…you came… leave…too…” she finished.

Angelica tried to protest, but her hands were slapped away when she reached for the tray and she whined over her stinging wrist. Sachiko didn’t even look like she was trying.

There was no way to win.

_Stupid, super-powered assholes._

But, the woman had a point. Haru had survived on her own on busy days long before Angelica had shown up. It wouldn’t hurt to step out and have a relaxing few hours in the market with newly restored eyesight. Especially since it was her first vacation day since ending up in this topsy-turvy world.

She pulled off her apron and hung it on one of the wall pegs.

“I’ll be back.”

Sachiko waved dismissively, a warm fondness radiating through her fatigue.

Angelica hurried into the service corridor, tightening her sash and adjusting her kimono top so she wasn’t flashing any cleavage. She studiously avoided running into anyone, for fear of losing her nerve. It wasn’t so much that Haru had been forceful when she had asked Angelica to help her in the kitchen. It was just that the woman had a way about her that expected obedience from people and Angelica had never really been one to step out of line and create conflict.

It was sunny outside and the air had a crisp edge to it, a warning of a chilly night. Around her the energy swelled, her focus on the _Lotus_ fading as she made her way down the street with her hands tucked into her sleeves. Nobody paid her any mind, moving along with business as usual. She lost herself in the sensation of the populace for a second, the tide of emotion a soothing white noise as she wandered in the direction of the clinic, breathing in the warm smells of street food and the crisp autumn air.

Her wooden sandals started clicking on cobbles as she left the open market, turning towards the northern edge of town, past the ruins of what had once been Tanzaku Castle.

The only thing she knew about it was that apparently some ninjas had wrecked the place and no one had the funds to really rebuild the thing.

A bell rang with a crystal tone when she opened the door of the small clinic tucked into an alley.

“Doctor,” she called, even as she felt the flickering energy that reminded her of blooming flowers snap to attention in the back room.

“One moment,” Dr. Izumi answered.

Soon the doctor was stepping up behind the counter, wiping her hands on a towel.

“If it isn’t Aiko,” she greeted, crows feet wrinkling, “come to pick up your glasses?”

“Yes ma’am,” the girl answered, eyes flickering down.

It wasn’t really shyness that compelled her so much as the fact most people wouldn’t notice her unfocused gaze if she wasn’t looking them in the face. It helped that she could simply use her energy-sense to pick out positioning and the fact that culturally it made her seem rather polite and demure to refuse eye contact.

Izumi laughed.

“Well, come to the back.”

Angelica nodded, following the older woman obediently.

“Now these are…lenses, take care of them…extra work…frames,” Izumi said as she picked up a package from one of the tables.

“Need more money?” Angelica asked, with a sinking feeling.

The doctor’s aura flickered with surprise.

“Ah, no, not what I meant,” the woman said.

“I like you, so I’m giving you a gift,” she enunciated carefully, causing Angelica to sigh with relief.

The doctor opened the box and showed her what was inside. To Angelica’s surprised there was a fine matrix of energy curled around the pair of glasses. They were bulky, black, square things, but golden filigree was painted on the arms. To her senses the energy looked like it was tied to the artwork.

“They’re so pretty,” she breathed, and expensive, she didn’t say.

The energy she could sense so clearly was called chakra by the locals, and she knew enough to know that getting any kind of item with that energy worked into it was an expensive endeavor way beyond the fee she had paid for her glasses.

Izumi patted her on the arm.

“You’re a good kid,” she said, “this is a thank you, so put them on.”

Angelica flushed, happy at the compliment.

A few weeks back she had helped Izumi with a patient of hers. From what she knew this world didn’t have access to MRI or Ultrasound, and Izumi had gotten a patient with a small tumor hidden behind his liver.

The man had been asymptomatic, and except for the fact that he had random fainting spells and couldn’t keep down his food. Angelica had been in for a check-up, as ordered by Mama after she had fallen ill with a fever. Burnt out and weary she had told Izumi that she could sense a tumor near the man’s liver. Warned in such a way, it had given Izumi the time to get the man the treatment he needed by transferring him to a hospital in a big city, and not giving him the prescription that would have killed him because of his faulty organ.

Angelica put on the glasses, eyes wide as the world sharpened into clarity for the fist time in three months. Tears pricked her eyes, and she bowed to the other woman.

“Thank you so much doctor,” she whispered, throat tight.

Izumi wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and Angelica basked in the fond regard the woman’s energy enveloped her in.

“Don’t cry,” the woman teased, “this is nothing…friend, who…don’t be a crybaby,” she chuckled, pinching Angelica’s cheek.

“I wuv you,” the girl sniffled, words distorted by the skin pulled by the doctor’s fingers.

The doctor barked out a laugh.

Angelica simply hugged the other woman tighter for a moment before letting go. She thanked the doctor effusively as she bowed out of the shop, enjoying the amusement emanating from the woman at her over-the-top gratefulness. She was so busy staring at the buildings as she walked and focusing on the small fire that was Izumi she ran straight into a brick wall. Or it felt like a brick wall, which was slightly shorter than her, and in the middle of the road.

“Wuh?” she grunted, when she was caught before she could fall on her ass by said brick wall.

“I’m sorry,” the girl she had run into said. Angelica blinked, because now that she was paying attention her senses felt like she was standing face to face with a bonfire. The pink-haired girl she had run into had way more chakra than anyone Angelica had ever met in Tanzaku.

Then surprise followed quickly by concern flared in the girl’s energy, the amount leaving Angelica’s senses reeling. It was like being blasted in the face with a screaming megaphone.

“You’re cold…chakra…how long,” the girl spat rapid fire, while casually manhandling Angelica to sit on a nearby bench.

Angelica stumbled onto her seat shaking her head rapidly. This must be a ninja, Emi told her to keep clear of them. Angelica was inclined to agree; the average person in this world had numerous physical advantages over her and normal citizens considered ninjas monsters. Standing up to one would probably be like trying to stare down a hurricane.

“I’m sorry, slow down, need to go,” she protested.

The girl’s brows furrowed and confusion softened the edges of her aura.

“Do you speak my language?” she said slow and simple.

Angelica shook her head in denial.

“Not well,” she said as she tried uselessly to pry off the hand taking her pulse. She yelped when the girl _pushed_ her energy through her hand, causing Angelica’s whole arm turn numb.

The girl’s concern swelled.

“I’m sorry, do you know anyone that can speak?” she asked after blessedly stopping whatever it was that she was doing with her chakra.

Angelica nodded frantically, trying to stand, only to gasp when the girl picked her up easily, bridal style.

Her ears felt hot.

“Where?” she asked, simply.

Angelica adjusted her glasses and tucked her arms against her chest, staring at her fingers.

“West Poppy Street, to the south, the _Lotus_ club.”

Without further ado, the girl leapt, her chakra flaring across Angelica’s skin and giving her goose bumps. She choked on a scream, as the girl made it back to the club in only five minutes by leaping across the rooftops like a monkey.

“No,” she yipped, when the girl tried to go to the front door of the _Lotus._

“Alley, in the alley,” she directed, pointing towards the staff entrance.

The girl’s mint green eyes were hard and her focus resonated like a tuning fork. She didn’t even notice the fact that the place was a brothel until Kimiko opened the side door in her work clothes.

“Ah, I was wondering why anyone with a key would be knocking,” the woman rasped, voice husky.

The tips of the pink-haired girl’s ears turned red. Flustered embarrassment superseded her focus for a moment, attraction twining through it. Angelica couldn’t blame her Kimiko was a very beautiful woman.  

“Is there anyone…legal…emergency…treatment for?” she asked, firmly, grasping her focus yet again.

Kimiko raised a perfectly shaped brow, turning her gaze to Angelica. The woman shrugged helplessly from her position in the ninja girl’s arms.

“Come in, I’ll get Mama.”

The woman swept away in a cloud of fluttering silk and bared skin.

The pink haired girl stepped further down the hall, turning into the dining room. She set Angelica on one of the settees and began shining a penlight in her eyes. The woman huffed, irritated and tried to squirm away. Emi and Keiko giggled at one of the low tables, teasing amusement rippling in their energy after they got over the sudden appearance of the ninja girl.

The pink girl grasped her shoulders, holding Angelica in place.

“I’m a doctor,” she admonished, staunchly ignoring the woman’s disbelieving look. The girl certainly believed that she was telling the truth; her chakra was clear and honest.

At that moment Angelica winced as she felt Mama’s energy flare with irritation and worry. The matron didn’t move from her office, probably dealing with important paperwork.

The girl’s alertness tightened a few notches.

Angelica cut her off before she could ask her questions,

“My name is Aiko,” she said, pointedly.

Her mini ninja doctor, because seriously the kid didn’t look older than 14, flushed at her own rudeness.

“I’m Haruno Sakura, ninja from the Hidden Leaf.”

Angelica smiled, and used the distraction to gently move Sakura’s hands away from her face.

“Hidden Leaf?”

Sakura looked surprised.

“It’s a village of ninjas, its one of the best,” she replied, patriotic.

Angelica giggled at her enthusiasm before letting her gaze wander. She never really got to appreciate the warmth of the brothel lunchroom, when she hadn’t had any glasses. The walls were a shiny dark mahogany hung with colorful silk, giving the room a tent-like feel.

“Is it far?” she asked the young girl.

“O-oh, um, no but, if you…citizens…a week away,” she answered, sighing and giving up on her inspection.

Angelica treated her to a sunny smile.

The owner got up and began making her way to the dining room; worry pulsing in time with her footsteps. Angelica groaned at the feeling of impending doom, the matron was sure to get irritated when she came down to a false alarm.

Sakura startled and tried to ask her some medical questions Angelica couldn’t understand only to look up when Mama walked into the room. Angelica, having felt the matron coming, laid down on the small couch, throwing one of her legs over the back.

She waved a hand limply,

“She can speak.”

The woman then stared determinedly at the ceiling, feeling out the matron’s realization that Angelica was not in any life threatening danger and the ensuing annoyance that was sure to earn the woman the dubious honor of cleaning out one of the old brick ovens in the kitchen, later.

Sakura stood from her crouch, bowing in greeting to Mama and introducing herself in a much more complicated manner than she did to Angelica. Whatever she said made caution string through the matron, though she didn’t let it show.

The conversation was fast and full of language that Angelica wasn’t familiar with.

Sakura said something in a voice that demanded answers, listing off questions like she was filling out a diagnosis sheet.

Mama answered back casually and lit up her pipe, irritation swelling.

The girl didn’t appreciate the response and snapped something, waving her hands in Angelica’s direction.

The back-and-forth continued for a few minutes.

Angelica stared at the ceiling and felt out Sachiko; the woman was still napping off her cold. Emi and Keiko were having the time of their lives watching the little drama unfold and Kimiko leaned by the door, eyes sharp and energy coiled.

The heat haze of lust and attraction from the customers radiated through the walls, a familiar annoyance. Her mind expanded outwards a bit, taking in the various shops on the street and the myriad of customers.

She twitched when she felt something unusual.

A prickling energy almost like static was making its way down the street at a casual pace.

Angelica closed her eyes and focused on it. It was like a small dense ball, much heavier than any energy she had ever felt.

_Today is full of surprises._

The rest of the world faded as she examined the energy more closely as it arrived at the _Lotus_. Then it flickered and was suddenly at the entrance of the dining room, startling Kimiko. There was a _thunk_ as the woman’s knife buried itself in the doorframe, right above the head of a man crouching in the doorway.

“Teacher!” Sakura yelped.

Angelica wondered where the hell Kimiko kept that knife; her outfit had the coverage of a dishtowel and was see-through besides.

The woman sat up as the man drawled something in reply. His hair was gray and he was slouching, but he didn’t give off the impression of great age. If she was reading his energy right he was actually pretty young.

Sakura began yelling, gesturing toward Angelica and then toward Mama. Her frustration was clear.

The man hummed and walked further into the room. Kimiko bristled at his disregard, yanking her knife out of the doorframe. The man said something to Mama as he kneeled in front of Angelica. It was something about checking and solving the problem.

He took Angelica’s hand and the admonishment she was about to issue about not being one of the working girls died on her tongue. Suddenly, she had a high-definition front row seat to his chakra.

Unlike Sakura’s, it didn’t prickle uncomfortably; it was almost like a massage or the feeling of rolling a dense metal ball in her palm. His emotions flickered like moths: curiosity, fondness for his student, alertness, and a deep dark current of grief just under the surface.

Abruptly, the man pulled away.

“Chakra null,” he said.

Angelica blinked, puzzled.

“Chakra null?” Sakura asked.

Mama snorted,

“That’s what I said,” she snapped, blowing out a stream smoke.

“Now, get out of my house,” she ordered, her irritation edging into fury.

The ninja obeyed good-naturedly, tugging his pushy student along easily. He began explaining something to her as they left the room and exited the building.

Angelica picked at the edge of the couch cushion as Mama approached. She looked up, startled, when the matron’s energy curled with fondness instead of irritation. Mama laid a hand against her cheek,

“Are you alright?”

Angelica smiled on instinct, taking in Mama’s expression with new clarity.

“I’m fine,” she said, “What is ‘chakra null’?”

Kimiko shifted, gesturing to the other two girls in the room and they all left, leaving only Angelica and Mama.

“You don’t understand enough to be told,” Mama said as she took a seat next to Angelica.

The woman grasped her cheek just a bit harder, determination curling in her chakra like grasping vines.

“Do not go near ninja,” she urged, tone dipping into something worried, “they are greedy,” she paused, at the limit of the vocabulary that Angelica could understand.

“Promise me.”

Angelica nodded, overwhelmed by the emotion surging in the matron.

“I promise, tell me later, what is ‘chakra null’?”

Mama laughed.

“Persistent girl,” she sighed, “yes, I’ll tell you later.”

Angelica was sent to her room to rest from her ordeal. Curiosity prickled at her, though.

What was ‘chakra null’?

Why had that man felt so different from all the people she had ever felt before?

What were ninja, really?

It was like waking up from a dream, all of this time surviving and adjusting and despairing faded. She had always been a student, she had loved learning, taking in new ideas and skills. Ninja were a whole different level of mystery wrapped up in a super-powered package.

It made her curiosity _burn._

 


	2. In the Business of Pleasure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angelica gets wasted, is metaphorically cock-blocked from relevant knowledge, and endeavors to save a life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Lotus girls are my babies and you will pry them from my cold dead hands. (btw the lotus is the idealized version of a brothel if sex work wasnt a cesspit due to the scum that like to ruin peoples lives.) We need to start throwing Angelica into the wider world to help her get ready for the crazy ninja shit and other shenanigans thats going to happen to her in the future. Prep work if you will.

Angelica set the tray on the table with a huff, careful not to upset the meticulously arranged dango tower. The fruit arrangement next to it wobbled dangerously, unseating a few grapes. The woman sighed and Nami giggled at her plight. The younger woman snatched the fruit off the table, popping it into her mouth with a hum.

“It’s yummy,” she said as she drifted away.

It was the bimonthly office party; at least that was what Angelica thought of it as. Every two months Mama closed the _Lotus_ for the day and had a gathering for the girls. It was a social time for everyone, seeing as most of the time at least a few girls were entertaining guests.

Food and snacks were made available and Haru and Angelica had to work overtime to make portions large enough for everyone.

Angelica nearly knocked over all her hard work when Keiko screamed, energy flaring gleefully.

“Akane is having a baby!” The girl screeched waving one of the letters she had been reading and nearly spilling out of her robe in her enthusiasm. As one, most of the room converged on the girl with cries of disbelief and congratulations. Keiko’s purple hair disappeared into the crowd until Kimiko waded in, slapping girls over the head with her fan.

“Give her some room you animals,” she laughed.

Keiko was summarily manhandled over to one of the couches so everyone could sit or stand around her more comfortably. Chatter rose as Keiko explained that the kid would be born in the next 5 months, showing off a picture of the happy couple.

Angelica stood on her toes to peer over Emi’s shoulder. Akane was a handsome woman, stocky and curvy with her belly protruding ever so slightly as she pulled her dress tight to show the camera her bump. A man stood next to her laughing, he was plain but had a rather gregarious look.

“I hope the kid takes after Akane,” Sachiko snorted, “Imagine having to be born with a face like that.”

Nami reached over to shove the woman.

“Oh, shush you, everyone knows you find men about as attractive as fungus; he looks fine.”

Sachiko huffed.

“She could have done better.”

The girls all laughed.

Angelica joined in, even as she felt Yuki’s mood dip. The girl was new; she had only been at the _Lotus_ for 6 months and joined not long after Angelica began working there. Most of the girls that join go through a moody adjustment period; it’s hard to adjust to selling sex even with the support of the _Lotus_ family. Yuki was taking longer than most, but she was doing well customer wise. Her delicate beauty was a thing epic poems were written about.

“Um, is Miss Akane your sister Miss Keiko?” the girl murmured, staring at her lap.

Keiko grinned.

“Not by blood, no, she used to work here,” she explained, “Mama always lets us do workshops and stuff, so she learned how to weave and used the money she saved up to move to another town.”

Yuki looked shocked.

“She found a husband, after all of this?” she asked.

Nami cackled.

“Of course she did! That woman was an absolute fox,” she wrapped an arm over Yuki’s shoulders with a grin, “I’m sure you’ll find someone too princess. Just save up and do your workshops and if you want Mama can get you an apprenticeship with one of the alumni.”

“Of course, you gotta pay apprenticeship fees and travel and stuff, but working like you are now it’ll only take a year or two plus your voluntary entrance bonus,” Emi joined in, voice muffled through a mouthful of dango.

Yuki’s mood twisted, dark.

Angelica frowned at the feeling.

Mama was a rough, but caring woman. It was a tough trade, prostitution, and most establishments hated to let go of a whore before they had every bit of money wrung from them. Mama had a very humanitarian and, more importantly, intelligent approach to her business.

She taught the girls and helped them gain their feet while they worked at the brothel. Many girls only stayed a few years before moving on and finding another profession. The _Lotus_ fostered bonds, and as a result Mama had a network that spanned most of the country.

It meant that she ended up being sent girls from all over the nation, providing new curiosities for her customers and always having fresh faces.

Even with that network, the _Lotus_ was small. The building was enormous, a former hotel made to host more than a hundred guests at a time. Most of it was furnished, but closed off for reasons Angelica didn’t understand.

Speaking of, Mama walked down the stair to the room smoking her pipe.

“Alright girls, time for this party to start.”

Cheers went up around the room as Kimiko cracked open the sake.

.

.

.

“Sacchan, I wuv you and your blue hair and your pretty blue eyes, and you take such good care of me and your chakra is so _warm._ ” Angelica slurred into Sachiko’s shoulder. Wobbling as Sachiko giggled and nearly tripped on the stair.

“Aw, Aicchan I love you too,” she hiccupped. She grunted when Angelica slapped her shoulder.

“Tell me what you love about me, too,” she whined, “I need praise to live!”

Sachiko cackled, swaying them into the hallway wall.

“Are you—okay, I like your dark skin and your pretty light eyes and your, and your cute little accent,” she laughed.

Angelica hummed, satisfied. Sachiko opened the door to her room and threw her on the bed.

“Go to sleep, you’re gonna be so fucked up in the morning Aicchan.”

The woman giggled drunkenly, holding out her arms.

“Cuddle me to sleep, Sacchan, you’re my slave for the night.”

Sachiko collapsed next to her with a chuckle.

“I shouldn’t have played poker with you, I never knew you were such a card shark.”

Angelica stuck out her tongue, gleeful.

They drifted off after that, full of sweets and alcohol and glowing with good humor.

.

.

.

Angelica was jolted awake at ass o’clock in the morning by a splitting headache and a wave of cold despair and loathing so strong it made her physically shiver.

She scrambled to the pot she had set by her futon. Last nights alcohol revisited the world in a tear-inducing burst.

She moaned and coughed.

“Shit.”

Another wave of dark emotion slammed into her.

“Fuck!” she gurgled, as she heaved into the pot once again.

It was Yuki.

Angelica scrambled to her feet. The girl wasn’t suicidal, her chakra was still flaring with the will to live, but she was close. Angelica bumped into the doorframe on her way out of the room, stumbling down the hall towards Kimiko’s energy.

“Kimi,” she gasped,“Kimi, open up,” she banged frantically on the door.

“Whom the fuck?” Kimiko snarled as she yanked open the entryway, nearly sending Angelica sprawling.

“ ‘S Yuki,” Angelica slurred, “take her off the roster for tonight.”

“Why?” Kimiko snapped, annoyed.

“She’s at the end of her rope, if she works tonight she’ll kill herself.”

Kimiko’s expression softened immediately, and she began fixing her messy hair.

“Come in here.”

Angelica stepped in immediately.

Kimiko was the most senior employee at the _Lotus_ , almost like an assistant manager. When Mama wasn’t managing things, she usually took care of assigning shifts and chores.

Angelica told her everything, as the woman got dressed. With heavy worry dogging their steps they went to Mama’s office.

The woman looked as impeccable as ever, steadily working at her desk despite the fact that she had going shot-for-shot with Kimiko the night before.

“Mama, we have a problem,” Kimiko said.

The matron frowned.

She didn’t ask any questions as they explained the situation, the furrow between her brows deepening.

“This is bad,” she sighed as she lit her pipe.

Angelica made a frustrated sound, a little green around the gills at the smell of smoke.

“And we can’t just put her on break, this doesn’t seem like it’ll go away in a few days.” The woman continued.

Kimiko hunched over her knees in one of the chairs.

“We can’t afford to give her a long break, it’ll put us in the red if she’s not earning _and_ we pay for her room and board,” she murmured, eyes dark.

“Then let her work in the kitchen with Haru and me,” Angelica snapped.

Mama grimaced.

“We don’t have the wiggle room for it and I can’t really justify the expense of having her there.”

Angelica gaped.

“Why not?” she nearly screamed, “As a brothel, _Lotus_ is one of the best!”

“For our employees!” Mama snapped.

“Most of our money is spent on operating expense and payouts to the local gangs to keep them from tearing us down. What else we do have is used for events and taking care of the girls!”

Angelica sat back as Mama deflated, exhaustion seeping out of her pores.

“If we put her out on the street, they’ll devour her whole,” Kimiko rasped.

“I know,” Mama said, tone despairing and chakra heavy.

Angelica felt her gut sink as she tried desperately to think of something.

_I can’t let this happen._

“Expand then,” she said.

Kimiko jerked up.

“What?”

“We have all this space, we even have a restaurant setup on the backside of the building, why not make use of it?”

Mama blew out a cloud of smoke.

“Haru can’t manage a restaurant and, like I said, we don’t have the money for it.”

Angelica snarled, frustrated.

“Then stop paying out to the gangs!” she yelled, “Hire ninja to protect us with the extra money and renovate the back!”

“Aiko!” Kimiko snapped at her insolence.

Mama slammed a palm on the table with a crack.

“Do you know how much it costs to hire a Konoha guard detail?”

“No I don’t, because you won’t tell me shit about them!” Angelica interrupted.

Mama stood and Angelica stumbled back into her chair, only then realizing that she had gotten up.

She walked over to the wall, pulling down a sheet of paper with calculations carefully printed on it.

“This is a summary of our profits by month, how much we pay out, and the fund for the girls in case of emergencies.”

Angelica scanned the sheet; she could read the numbers, if nothing else.

Mama wrote a number with a lot of zeros.

“This is what it would cost for a low-level ninja guard _per month_.”

Angelica breathed out, a helpless little sound.

“Even if we refused to pay out the gangs _we still couldn’t afford it._ ”

The matron sighed.

“And despite Kimiko’s skills, we can’t stop paying out to the gangs without putting all the girls in trouble.”

Angelica slumped, her mind working furiously.

Kimiko used to be in the ninja track at the Academy in Konoha. The smooth flow of her chakra gave it away, however, the woman had dropped out. Even so, she could drop kick nearly anyone into the next week, especially thugs that might be looking for collection money. Unfortunately, she also worked as a whore and she couldn’t be everywhere at once.

“If I could find a bouncer that could protect the girls just as well as Kimiko and someone to manage the restaurant with Haru, would you consider it?” she asked, nearly whispering.

Mama’s energy flared, focusing until it was sharp as a knife-edge.

Kimiko shifted, flickering with hope.

“I can give you two weeks, the girls won’t mind pitching in to keep Yuki on break, they love her. If you can give me a viable plan for keeping her on, I’ll go through with it.”

Angelica felt tears of relief prick her eyes, feeling like she had prevented an execution.

“But,” Mama sighed, “If you can’t come up with something, we’ll have to put her out, or she’ll have to work.”

Angelica stood and bowed.

“I understand,” she answered, thickly.

 

The door swung shut behind them with a quiet click.

Angelica sunk against the wall with a breathless squeak, not quite sure how she had managed to talk back _to Mama_.

“Oh my gods,” Kimiko laughed incredulously, “I can’t believe our little mouse bared its teeth at Mama.”

“Neither can I,” Angelica giggled hysterically.

They laughed for a few minutes, relieved of pressure. Then they began to walk towards Kimiko’s room.

“All that aside, how are you going to do this?” Kimiko asked, expression grim.

Angelica grimaced.

“I’m not sure, but I’ll figure it out.”

She would, for Yuki’s sake.

.

.

.

Sachiko was not happy when she got back to her room.

“What the hell, you left your throw up pot _right next to the bed_. I hurled just from the smell!” she complained, twisting Angelica into a headlock.

Angelica whined and squirmed.

“Stop it, that hurts,” she groaned, stomach lurching at the movements.

Sachiko let go quickly, turning to flop onto Angelica’s futon. There were already two bags of chips and a package umeboshi on her blankets along with a stack of trashy pulp comics.

“Don’t you have any customers today?” Angelica asked, sprawling next to her friend.

“Nah, I’m off rotation and I told my regulars to fuck off for the day,” Sachiko drawled, flipping a page.

Angelica cackled around a mouthful of salted chips.

“How do you even have customers at all if that’s how you treat them?”

Sachiko smirked.

“They like the whole ice queen image, even better if I treat them like trash. More stick than carrot,” she boasted, flipping her pale blue hair over her shoulder.

“Anyway, what’s got your panties in a twist Aicchan? You look stressed,” it was said casually, but her energy was sharp and attentive.

Angelica’s scalp prickled.

“Why are you concerned about my panties? I have to say I only think of you as a friend Sacchan, even if our babies would be super hot,” she deflected.

Sachiko kicked her in the shin.

“No bullshit, what’s up?”

So Angelica told her.

Sachiko grimaced.

“I knew Yuki didn’t have the guts for this, I could tell the moment she stepped her dainty foot over the threshold,” she sighed, “but you should never judge a book by its cover and all that.”

Sachiko rolled over, pulling Angelica in to rest her head on her shoulder.

“So how do you plan to do this?”

Angelica frowned.

The first priority was the bouncer; she already had an idea for the restaurant. Someone with ninja training and a good grasp of chakra would be ideal, but finding someone they could trust to be around the girls would be an issue. Angelica had a built-in radar that could span nearly half the town now, time and practice yielding results.

Finding someone with ninja training would be easy, if they were in town. Determining if they were trustworthy would be the clincher. The only thing Angelica could think of would be to interview the candidates. Being able to read emotions did nothing if she didn’t see what they were reacting too. Most people didn’t feel untrustworthy until they were put in the position that they _shouldn’t be trusted in._

Interviewing and asking questions would be the only way to determine someone’s disposition.

However, that put her in enormous danger. To put it lightly, when it came to this world, she was a porcelain cup in a hailstorm. People didn’t even have to be actively malicious to hurt her, one hard grab could bruise her and a light hit could leave her cringing in pain for hours.

“I was thinking of using,” she twirled her fingers, searching for the words, “sense thing for chakra? To find a bouncer.”

Sachiko blinked.

“Is it that sensitive?”

Angelica nodded, a slight flush of pride coloring her cheeks at her friends regard. She tilted her head when she felt Kimiko go to Yuki’s room, done posting the modified weekly rotation. There was a small, relieved flare; it overtook Yuki’s black mood as Kimiko presumably told her about the new schedule.

“I have to interview them, though, after I find them.”

Sachiko bit her lip at that.

“That sounds dangerous.”

She twined a lock of Angelica’s hair around a finger.

Angelica sighed.

“Yeah, I know. I’m going to see if I can get Kimiko to come with me on one of her breaks.”

She ate another chip, letting the salt sooth her mood.

She tucked herself further into Sachiko’s chest.

“Haru gave me the today off, nap with me,” she demanded, softly.

Sachiko picked up her comic and shifted so she could see it more easily.

“Yes, your highness,” she teased, lowly, hand stroking Angelica’s hair.

Like that, she drifted into sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I mention I love Sachiko? She's my lesbian love and she grinds men into the dirt under her heel. Also Angelica's and Sachiko's friendship gives me life. Also I love the girls at the Lotus, I would dedicate a whole story to them if I could. Unfortunately, ninjas and goddesses call.


	3. Manhunting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angelica searches for a man, finds two, and leaves with one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are almost at the end of what I call the Daily Life Arc in my head. Angelica is building up momentum and about to hit her stride and fall face first into that Good Shit(tm), by which I mean the main plot. For all of you who think I'm starting slow, believe me I have to establish characters and knock my babe around a bit before she can stand up to the big kids. Also just so we know, most all of this is from Angelica's perspective and she doesn't see everything that is happening all the time. So some thing fly over her head. Poor thing.

Angelica groaned lowly, flexing her fingers.

Kimiko laughed.

“Haru work you hard?”

Angelica nodded accepting a kebab from the street vendor.

“It’s like torture, who knew that working in a kitchen involved so much physical labor?” she joked.

Kimiko grinned and cooed over her friend’s plight. Angelica scowled and stuck her tongue out, adjusting her scarf so the food wouldn’t drip anything on it.

It had been three nail-biting days since her discussion with Mama. If she had her way she would have set out to work immediately, but she wasn’t allowed to wander far from the _Lotus._ It was a safety precaution, because despite her proficiency at understanding the language, her ability to speak it was muddled by her accent. It made her a worryingly easy target for the thugs of the Flower District.

It was stupid, because she had been able to wander when she knew less of the language before, but Mama had gotten paranoid after the whole tiny ninja doctor incident.

_For reasons she refused to tell Angelica._

So, she had to wait for Kimiko’s break to do anything like a search.

They wandered through the chilly streets, bundled into winter clothes and eating warm food. They ended up at one of the many benches that lined the main causeway, aptly named Rose.

Angelica spooled out her chakra sense, feeling for the chakra signatures she needed. With Kimiko right beside her as a reference it made the search marginally easier.

Kimiko ate her kebab and stared at the side of Angelica’s head.

Her eyebrow twitched.

“What?” she asked.

Kimiko took another bite of her food.

“How far is your range?”

Angelica hummed, thinking.

“Well, from here I can feel most of the Flower District, but near the edges everything starts getting blurry so it might actually be smaller than that.”

Kimiko made an awed sound. Angelica felt out a woman walking into one of the clothing shops before deeming her unworthy.

“That’s actually really amazing, I guess being chakra null has its benefits.”

Angelica dropped out of her senses, not finding any candidates.

“What is that anyway?” she asked, “I keep asking Mama, but she won’t tell me anything about it.” She mumbled through a mouthful of food, finishing her cold kebab in a few sloppy gulps. Nothing like juicy beef squares to get the body going.

Kimiko raised an eyebrow, slight disgust rippling through her energy.

“Well, the thing about that is,” she paused, frowning, “how do I say this?”

Angelica got up, throwing her skewer in a nearby trashcan and waving at the woman to walk and talk.

Kimiko followed with the same effortless grace with which she did everything.

“Mama is probably just worried about what you’d do if you found out what it meant to be what you are,” the woman hummed, tugging at her scarf.

Angelica snorted, half her mind tracking the chakra signatures of the people around them, searching.

“Seems foolish to me. The only things I can do are tell where people are and break a bone if someone shoves me wrong,” she said, tone scathing.

Kimiko pulled Angelica absentmindedly out of the way of a group of giggling women heading toward a teahouse.

“That’s the thing, though, even trained ninja have a hard time picking out chakra at that range. Let alone differentiating between someone with basic training and the average civilian.”

Kimiko’s features had lit up and she seemed to be gearing up for a rant.

“Most failures from the Academy quit or are kicked out because of lack of chakra, so they usually have the stores equivalent to civilians. Even high level ninja can’t pick them out of a line-up just by their _chakra_.”

Angelica frowned.

Kimiko made it sound like Angelica had some kind of special talent that was way beyond the pale. Angelica didn’t quite believe it; she had witnessed ninja able to jump over buildings and practically teleport. Being able to tell where people were and their mood didn’t seem like an applicable skill.

She opened her mouth to ask more questions when her senses pinged.

_There._

A signature that was smooth like Kimiko’s. It was only a few streets away and sitting at the patio of a restaurant.

She grabbed Kimiko’s hand and rushed across the street, nearly getting run over by a wagon.

“Sorry!” she cried, as she ran.

She squeaked when she almost tripped over her sandal, the wooden bottoms sliding on a wet patch. Kimiko picked her up, one armed, and kept moving until Angelica found her feet.

When they arrived at _Katsuki’s,_ the bar was still empty for the most part. It was still morning; the nightlife hadn’t even begun to pick up.

There, at one of the patio tables, sat a man. He looked average, brown hair with dark eyes, but his chakra had that smooth flow unique to those with ninja training.

He was drinking some kind of beer, eyes on a book he had setup on the table. The number ‘ **18+** ’ was on the spine.

Angelica grimaced, but at least he was shameless, it would do him well if they asked him to work in the brothel.

She led Kimiko up to the table, nudging her forward and half-hiding behind the woman.

“Like we practiced,” she whispered.

Kimiko rolled her eyes.

“Hello sir, my name is Kimiko, I’m from the _Lotus_ club on West Poppy Street,” she smiled, tone friendly.

The man looked up from his book and a ripple of lust shot through him at the sight of Kimiko. Angelica curled her hands into the back of the other woman’s jacket and closed her eyes, focusing on the man’s reactions.

Lust didn’t say much beyond the fact that the guy had an attraction to women. A lot of people felt that, whether or not it really affected their behavior was another story.

“I’ve heard that you used to live in Konoha, is it possible that you attended the Academy while you were there?”

Surprise. Wariness. Desire.

So, he was loose-lipped, he wasn’t surprised that someone knew about his past.

The man closed his book.

“I used to live there, yes. It wasn’t for me, though.”

Smugness. Irritation. Nostalgia.

Kimiko leaned forward, eyes wide and interested.

“Is it true that they train all the kid’s there to be ninjas?” she asked breathlessly, playing the part of a gossip chaser.

A stronger shot of lust. Then pride.

“I trained for a bit myself,” he chuckled, ruffling his own hair sheepishly.

Dishonesty. Desire. Superiority.

“Wow, really?” Kimiko asked, somehow sounding like she was impressed. Angelica nearly snorted.

She buried her face in the mass of black hair that spilled down Kimiko’s back and took in the smell of lilies, trying to sense more of the man’s intentions.

“Yeah, I was one of the best in my class—,” Lie, “but, they never saw that, all they cared about was the brats from the ninja families. No time for true talent.” Bitterness.

Kimiko’s energy curled with disgust and irritation.

“You must be really strong,” she said, playfully, as she took a seat at the table. Angelica tugged a seat alongside her and tucked her face into her friend’s shoulder.

The man’s curiosity rippled.

“Oh, hello, who is this?”

Kimiko leaned forward, offering a view of her generous cleavage.

“This is my friend Aiko, she works with me, but she’s very shy.”

The man didn’t bother answering, distracted and staring lustily at the view.

“You seem _really_ well off, but would you be interested in a job?” Kimiko reached forward, tracing her fingers over the back of his hand.

More lust, Angelica grimaced, and a flicker of interest.

The man hummed, playing coy.

“That depends on what your looking for, baby."

Exasperation curled through Kimiko.

“Well, you see, _Lotus_ is a specialized kind of establishment that caters to certain _needs,”_ she curled her tongue around the word deliberately, “but the girls there don’t feel as safe as they should.”

She let him fill in the rest of the blanks.

There was understanding and then contemplation. Suddenly pure _greed_ slammed through him, nearly jarring Angelica from her concentration.

He grasped Kimiko’s hand lightly.

“I see,” he said, and Angelica gave a slight shiver from the slimy felling suddenly suffusing his aura.

“I would be glad to help those girls feel safe, for a price of course.” He grinned.

“The name’s Akihito,” he murmured, bringing Kimiko’s hand up for a kiss.

He’d already lost the job, though. The greed and the lust that had doubled at the mention of the brothel could only mean a few things and none of them filled Angelica with confidence.

The woman reached forward and dragged Kimiko’s hand away.

“No,” she said, shaking her head.

Relief swooped through Kimiko and Angelica tried to reign in her senses.

“You aren’t the person we’re looking for.”

Akihito’s grin disappeared, Angelica hunched under the heat of his anger, trying to block it out.

“What?” he growled.

Kimiko smiled and stood.

“She said, we don’t need you,” she snapped, former friendliness gone, “thank the gods we don’t, I couldn’t stand being around someone so slimy anyway.”

Angelica choked on a giggle, following her friend’s lead.

The man tried to stand, anger radiating off of him, only to fall flat on his ass when Kimiko knocked his feet out from under him with a casual kick.

“Thanks for nothing, _Akihito_ ,” she drawled as she sauntered away, pulling a cackling Angelica along with her. It wasn’t nice or becoming to laugh at people’s pain, but having to experience first-hand the man’s thought process had drained what little sympathy Angelica could have had.

When they were a safe distance away the tension in Kimiko’s shoulders lessened.

She sighed.

“That was a bust.”

Angelica snorted.

“No kidding.”

The woman scowled, tucking her hands into her sleeves.

“Let’s go toward the eastern edge of town, maybe we’ll find someone that’s less of a creep.”

Kimiko nodded, hooking a few fingers into Angelica’s obi to turn her onto the right street. The woman flushed, and straightened.

“I was going that way,” she muttered, turning away from Kimiko’s teasing grin.

Then she thought better of it and tried to grab the fabric of Kimiko’s jacket. The silk sewn over the quilted cotton made it a difficult endeavor so she just reached under to clutch at the woman’s shirt.

“Actually, you lead the way, I’ll search while we walk.”

Kimiko agreed easily and if Angelica didn’t know better she would think the other woman was _enjoying_ being out in the freezing cold weather, wandering aimlessly and talking to sleazy assholes.

 _Then again_ , Angelica thought wryly, _dealing with sleazy men is her job._

Angelica was petty, because the cold weather didn’t even seem to touch the other woman, despite the fact that she was wearing her jacket open with only a t-shirt under it. Angelica slid her freezing fingers under Kimiko’s shirt, clutching at her waist.

The woman _shrieked._

The people on the street stared at them funny as they went streaking past, Angelica laughing and Kimiko hot on her heels. The woman had no doubt that Kimiko was letting her stay ahead, but the chase was fun anyway.

They were at the edge of the eastern district when Angelica finally lost steam, hunching over a cramp in her side and leaning against a fence, giggling. Kimiko slid to a stop beside her, not even breathing hard.

“You okay, princess?” the woman laughed.

Angelica made a rude gesture.

“Fuck off,” she huffed, smiling.

She expanded her senses again, if they didn’t find another candidate in the next hour she was going to call it quits for the day. There was no need to rush; she had two weeks after all, even if it felt like a pitiable amount of time.

Most of the eastern district was undeveloped; it was where people who wanted to live away from the rowdiness of the main streets and the debauchery of the Flower District usually chose to live. It wasn’t exactly the first place Angelica would look for a former baby assassin.

Regardless, she had to try.

Surprisingly, it only took a few minutes of wandering around until she felt another chakra. It was flaring with exertion and seemed to be in a wooded area a ways off the main road.

It was also male, which meant whoever it was would already be on thin ice the moment they started the interview.

They heard the guy before they saw him. The loud _thock_ ’s of something fleshy striking wood and his breathless grunts. Angelica hid behind a tree, and waved Kimiko forward. She didn’t bother trying to get a glimpse of the guy, but Kimiko peaked around their cover to look. The woman’s lips puckered into a silent whistle.

She ducked again and brushed a hand through her hair, tousling it, and adjusted her bra for maximum push up. Angelica watched impatiently, waving at her to hurry.

Kimiko stepped out of cover and strode towards the candidate. The sounds of his training ceased and surprise curled in his energy.

“Hello,” Kimiko called flirtatiously.

The man flushed, hurrying over to his bag at the other edge of the clearing and grabbing a towel. He half held it in front of him as he wiped his sweat.

“Hi,” he said, stuttering.

Kimiko’s aura curled with something smug and anticipatory.

She walked forward, invading his space.

“You were working really hard there, don’t stop on my behalf,” she purred.

Unfortunately for Kimiko, the guy didn’t stay off balance long.

He returned her smile.

“Sorry Miss, it would have been rude of me to just keep going when you went out of your way to say hello. Can I help you?”

Angelica couldn’t read anything substantial, a tickle of attraction, vague interest, and friendliness. She frowned at her knees and tried to look harder. The energy around the guy rippled as he pulled on his shirt, his outline losing cohesion with the movement.

“Well, since you asked, I’m actually looking for a man to do a job for me,” Kimiko drawled, casually.

There was disinterest, then disappointment, and oddly, loneliness.

“Ah, I’m sorry but I already work at the grocer down the road,” he bowed shallowly and moved to leave.

Kimiko flared with brief panic, and caught his arm. Her seductive act dropped away.

“You were practicing the Konoha Basic, Earth form, right?”

Surprise. Excitement.

“Um, yeah I was, did you go to the Academy too?”

Kimiko grinned at him, “Yeah, but I got dropped for lack of chakra capacity.”

Camaraderie. Interest.

“Same here, but I heard that girls didn’t really require that to join the Corps?” The words curled into a question at the end.

Something black flickered in Kimiko’s energy, too fast for Angelica to catch.

“It just wasn’t for me, I guess.”

Angelica smiled to herself, because the guy was doing pretty well.

_Time for the real test._

“I have to say, you being from Konoha is why I approached you. My name’s Kimiko, by the way.” She gave a small bow.

The man bowed back.

“You can call me Mamoru. How did you know? I usually keep myself pretty isolated and I only got here a few weeks back.”

Angelica nibbled her lip, no red flags so far.

“I’ve been scoping out the neighborhood for a few days, and you caught my eye,” Kimiko lied baldly, “have you ever been to the Flower District?”

Mamoru’s chakra pulsed, curious.

“Not really, the auntie at the grocer says it’s not a place for, well, nice people.”

Kimiko laughed.

“There are plenty of _nice_ people in the Flower district,” she crossed her arms under her breasts, no reaction from Mamoru, just attention, “if you know where to look.” She finished with a wink.

He shook his head at the flirtation, smiling.

“I work at a club called the _Lotus_ and, as I’m sure you can guess, we cater to some pretty specific needs,” she said seriously.

Mamoru blinked, puzzlement curling off him.

“What needs?”

Kimiko chakra stilled in utter disbelief and then curled at the edges, utterly charmed.

“It’s a brothel,” she laughed.

Embarrassment.

“Oh my goodness,” he whispered, looking down, “I’m sorry.”

Kimiko patted him on the shoulder.

“Why? I’m not.”

Mamoru looked away, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I know that, well I’m sure—there are men that work at places like that, I don’t think I’d be the right fit for the job.”

It was Kimiko’s turn to be confused. Angelica clenched her hands over her mouth as her shoulders shook.

The feeling of apology in Mamoru’s chakra faded slightly, and hopefulness took its place.

“I wouldn’t mind getting to know you and being friends, though. It’s not everyday that you meet a fellow Academy dropout.”

Kimiko finally came to a realization.

“Wait! No, that’s not what I meant at all! I was hoping you could be a bouncer for the club.” She squeaked, tone wobbling with disbelief.

Mamoru’s aura tightened and then something like excitement pulsed through him.

“As a bouncer? Do you get a lot of trouble there?”

Kimiko regained her composure.

“Yeah, usually I handle it, but we expect more problems to start coming our way soon, so we’re looking for a bouncer to work full time.”

Protectiveness and excitement rippled out of Mamoru like a heat wave.

It must have shown on his face, because something like satisfaction rolled through Kimiko.

“Lots of fights?” he asked, tone light.

Kimiko bared her teeth and hooked an arm over the man’s shoulder.

“Plenty.”

.

.

.

Kimiko was ready to hire the guy on the spot, but she waited until Angelica walked into the clearing with a smile on her face to give the guy the meeting time and directions to the employee entrance at the _Lotus._

When they finally got back to the brothel, Angelica said goodbye to Kimiko and tromped up to her room to collapse on her futon. Mamoru passed the initial round, but he would be on a trial period for the next few weeks with Angelica keeping an eye on his chakra.

Then she shot up.

“Fuck!”

She forgot to ask Kimiko the details about being chakra null. She found the pulse of Kimiko’s energy and groaned when she sensed the woman in the entrance lounge, charming a customer. Kimiko was usually tight-lipped about anything and everything to do with her past as a ninja hopeful, including discussions about chakra. It was unlikely that her she’d still be in a talkative mood after she was done working.

She sought out Sachiko, only to whine and bury her face in her pillow as she focused on her _entertaining_ a customer.

Having this kind of power could be inconvenient at a place like the _Lotus._ She usually survived by ignoring all the input she got until it all faded to white noise. It had saved her a lot of grief over the last few months. It didn’t stop her from being scarred for life by some of the things she got images of when she was unprepared, though.

She sighed and rolled over, hugging her pillow. After such a tiring past few hours she could close her eyes for a few minutes, couldn’t she?

She pulled off her glasses and laid them beside the bed.

Happy with her success for the day, Angelica drifted to asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kimiko is a Good Friend, Mamoru is a Blood-Thirsty Cinnamon Roll, and Akihito can suck my dick.


	4. Freaky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angelica runs an errand, meets a boy, and has an unfortunate encounter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where the rape/noncon tag really comes in, we've been dealing with dubious consent, cuz, y'know, prostitution, but ill put lines in for those of you wanting to avoid the scene. Also what's this? A wild plot has poked out of the bush!!

Her dreams were a disjointed mess of color, populated with gossamer images of home and people she knew. She tumbled through the hallway of her childhood house straight onto the grass of the Yonsei university quad. She stood up blinking and, in a fit of dream logic, began walking towards the international student dorm.

Only, the world seemed to drag and curve and she couldn’t leave her spot. Her belly curled with anxiety.

 _I have to meet Sooyoung_.

Summoned by the thought, the other girl appeared, wavering like a mirage in the desert.

“Wait!” Angelica tried to call, but her words were cumbersome and heavy, tumbling onto the grass like stones. They clattered as they fell, rolling away.

Sooyoung’s outline waved and turned to walk away.

She disappeared along with the university, leaving Angelica in a field of flowers. Angelica looked at the nature around her and wondered why she had been hurrying.

She knelt and ran a knuckle over a flower, admiring the blush of the petals, even as the grass around her grew and the flowers began to tower over her. Angelica walked further into the garden, admiring the saturated colors of the blooming flowers. Sachiko waved at her from the petals of a blue tulip, Angelica waved back.

Suddenly, she was on a lake, the water so clear and still it reflected the sky and spread for miles around. She stood on the mirror-like surface, crouching to run her hand over the image of sky and wondering at her lack of reflection.

The ripples spread, revealing the shallowness of the water and giving a glimpse of a lattice of roots. Angelica looked up, staring at the giant lotus that stood in the center of the lake, its petals closed and blushed a subtle rainbow pattern that tapered into a pure white at the tips.

Angelica stepped closer. Shadows moved within the pale petals, abstract and fascinating. She put a hand on the flower, marveling at the softness, and the shadows darkened.

A figure slammed against the inside of the lotus.

.

.

.

Angelica woke slowly.

She blinked sluggishly and yawned, arching into a stretch. Her obi pulled awkwardly as she wiggled out of her day clothes, peeling off the layers and squirming to get out of her pants without leaving her bed. She scowled groggily when she realized her neck was sticky with sweat.

“Shower,” she mumbled, squinting. She felt around for her clock and couldn’t find it. So, she searched through the club. Activity in the main lounge was hitting its stride.

_It must be sometime after dinner._

She was forever grateful for all of the prep work Haru made her do that morning; weekend nights could be a terror if they didn’t have easy to make food on hand for the girls. She would have been stuck in the kitchen all night with Haru trying to feed them otherwise.

They burned a lot of calories, after all.

She groaned as she rolled out of her futon and put on her glasses. It only took her a moment to grab her shower kit and slip into her robe, belting the sash loosely.

One of the best things about using a former hotel to house the club was that it had it’s own baths. Despite technology being oddly archaic in this world, they still had the resources to make artificial baths, in the Japanese style of course.

It had taken a bit of time to get used to the communal bathing, but she had just started thinking of it like the locker room and the rest followed naturally.

“Aiko, can I use your shampoo? I left mine in my room.” Emi said, tugging at her long brown hair with a grimace. She took a seat at one of the stools next to Angelica, grabbing a showerhead.

Angelica hummed her assent as she rinsed the suds off her shoulders.

“Thanks, my last customer had the greasiest fingers ever, I swear.” She whined as she lathered her hair.

“Like he just stuck his hand in a fry basket? Face full of acne?” Momoka asked from one of the stalls.

“Yeah, with the jagged fingernails,” Emi shuddered, “I need to wash _everything_ , I’m not going get anymore customers tonight if I smell like stale pork rinds.”

Angelica made her way over to the baths, stepping into the steaming water with a satisfied sigh.

She felt a tug on her hair.

“So jealous,” Keiko cooed affectionately as she leaned over the other woman, but her feelings were warm.

Angelica smiled at her, too relaxed to bother trying to speak in an understandable language. Most of the girls used the baths for a quick rinse between customers, so the actual pools were empty this late.

Keiko shifted and leant against the lip of the basin.

“Aiko, since you’re free, can you do me a favor?”

“Mhmm,” Angelica hummed.

Keiko grinned.

“Thanks girl. I just need you to take a letter I wrote to that park near Gardenia Avenue, you know the one right?”

Angelica thought about it, she and Sachiko had gone there last week when they went on a street food binge.

“The one with the broken swing? With the red slide?”

Keiko grinned.

“That’s the one! The letters in my personal room on the dresser, it has the lotus stamp on it,” she sighed, lovelorn, “I was supposed to meet my Natsu for a date tonight, but Kimiko changed the rotation this week.”

Disappointment threaded through her aura as well as her voice.

Emi snorted as she rinsed her hair.

“Bet he’s going to be sad to find his ladylove unable to meet him because she was too busy sucking dick,” Her tone was joking, but her chakra was edged with bitterness.

Keiko’s energy spiked aggressively.

“Unlike that shit-stain you were dating, Natsu knows where I work and accepts me for who I am, so don’t pin your hurt feelings on me.”

Momoka cackled from her stall as Emi’s aura flared, hurt.

Angelica hunched down under the sudden change in mood.

“Well good for _you,_ Keiko. I guess not all of us can find a man that’s fine with his girlfriend being a whore!” Emi snapped, a dark rush of feelings fountaining to the surface of her chakra.

She looked ready to stand and Keiko was bristling, ready for a fight.

Angelica sunk further into her bath.

Emi yelped when Momoka smacked her wet hand onto her back, _hard._

“Come on ladies, we don’t need this right now,” the older woman admonished, shaking out her short dark hair.

“Emi, I know it hurts, but that man wasn’t worth your time or your bond with your _sisters,_ ”

Emi hunched, aura curling apologetically, and whined over the pain in her back. Angelica felt a little sullen; a hit like that would have fractured her spine.

“And Keiko, _think before you speak_ , what you said was uncalled for.”

Keiko looked away, a tiny thread of resentment burning in her spirit.

Momoka sighed, a half-grin on her face,

“You can discuss it in the Grievance Room with Mama tomorrow, now it’s time for work.”

Keiko’s chakra rippled with protest.

“Wait, no, we don’t need that,” she said pulling her hands into a begging position and bowing, “It wasn’t that bad, I’m sorry Momo.”

The woman shook her head, reaching for a towel to dry off.

“Don’t think no one has noticed you two snipping at each other, you were about to start a fight not _1 minute ago_ ,” she said, “I’m reporting to Mama so you two can sort out,” she waved vaguely, “whatever _this_ is.”

They both bowed to the other woman’s authority, emotions swirling so fast that it was giving Angelica a headache.

Even if it was a great place filled with even better people, the _Lotus_ wasn’t without its conflicts. The Grievance Room was where any of the girls could talk out an argument, if it couldn’t be solved on its own. Usually Mama mediated, or one of the senior staff, like Momoka or Kimiko. The profession they worked was stressful and could leave wounds in unexpected places; sometimes friction could arise between employees.

Angelica stood.

“The park near Gardenia?” she confirmed, cutting through the tension.

Keiko sighed, emotions releasing and being tucked away.

“Yeah, the letter is on the dresser, Natsu will be on the bench across from the slide, he’ll probably be wearing the red scarf I made for him.”

Angelica nodded and dried off, picking up her stuff and patting Emi on the arm on her way out. Emi gave her a wane smile in return.

When she got back to her room she got dressed, trying to shake off the heavy tension the fight had pushed between her shoulder blades.

Keiko’s room was neat and the sliding door separating it from her business room was locked. On her dresser was the note.

Angelica tucked it into the sleeve of her thick kimono top and readjusted her scarf embroidered with leaping koi fish. She didn’t mind running errands on the weekends. Haru usually did all prep work in the morning and insisted on running the kitchen on her own at night. It left Angelica with free time and the girls from the brothel didn’t always have space in their schedule to do much outside the _Lotus._

It helped occupy the woman and let her get on the other girls’ good sides.

She sighed and made her way downstairs, she took a running slide down the hall to get to the employee entrance, slipping easily in her thick tabi socks.

She grabbed her sandals from the cubby by the door and stepped out into the night.

The swell of foot traffic and noise had changed in tone. People cavorted about, drunk and yelling. Whistling at the girls in the windows of the shops and calling out for favor.

Angelica tucked her head down and began walking. Her dark features and thick clothing helped deter most of the perverts that liked to hang out on the streets of the pleasure district. There was a flare of interest from a man walking down the way opposite to the woman; Angelica pushed into the crowd and kept out of sight.

Mama would have her head if she knew Angelica had left without anyone to protect her.

Angelica smiled to herself.

The owner liked to act tough and she was genuinely terrifying, but Angelica was privy to the fact that Mama was absolute mush for the _Lotus_ girls. But, her protective nature seemed to turn up to eleven when it came to Angelica.

The people around her shifted and flowed like eddies in a river, so much input it changed into white noise.

She turned down Gardenia, dodging around a group that spilled into the streets from one of the restaurants.

When she got to the park it was blessedly quiet and she took a moment to breath and stare at the stars before making her way to the playground, the bright play chakra and emotion on the main street faded slightly.

Behind the swings there was a man was sitting on a bench. The red scarf around his neck stood out like a drop of blood against the pale colors of his clothing.

“Mister Natsu?” Angelica asked as she approached.

He looked up, hope rippling around him like a heat wave. A stab of disappointment went through him at the sight of Angelica.

She smiled.

“I work with Keiko,” she explained.

His polite expression dissolved into realization.

“Oh, hello, where is she?” he asked, eyes flickering around like he expected Keiko to leap out from behind Angelica.

She offered the letter.

“She can’t come out tonight, so she sent me with this note.”

He took the paper.

“Have you been waiting long?” she asked out of rote politeness.

He opened the letter immediately, tone distracted as he answered her.

“No, just a few hours.”

His emotions swirled, and Angelica focused on not taking too many of them in, looking away. Eavesdropping on the feelings of a man reading a letter from his beau felt a little too intimate for her comfort. She still caught the edges of them, all of them warm and near disgustingly sappy.

Natsu grinned, his shoulders shaking.

He wheezed, chuckling and leaned over the letter.

“Keiko has a way with words,” he said, with no context.

Angelica nodded along and took a small step back, unsure of his reaction.

He looked up and waved his hands pleadingly.

“Sorry, sorry, don’t go, I didn’t mean to look so crazy, can you take her my reply?”

Angelica shifted and nodded even as something niggled at her. She wasn’t unused to anxiety without a discernable source, being dropped into another world for no reason could cause a little upset.

So, she dismissed the feeling.

Natsu said something about not being able to wait until the next meeting and looking forward to seeing Keiko again. It was a lot more complicated and gooey than that, but Angelica hoped he didn’t mind her parsing it down to basics. There was being able to understand high-level language, and then there was being able to speak it. Angelica was better at the former rather than the latter.

“Do you want me to walk you back?” Natsu asked earnestly, “It’s getting pretty late.”

Angelica started and checked out the activity a street over. It was much later that the woman had thought, people were leaving bars and clearing out of restaurants.

“No,” she said, “I’ll be fine.”

It would be a little more difficult to avoid sloppy drunks without the crowd, but she was confident in her sensing ability. Besides, Natsu’s weird earnestness and genuine caring were throwing her off. Only being exposed to the girls in the brothel and the customers, for the most part, had left her without exposure to ‘normal’ people.

 _I like the_ Lotus _girls better._

At least they seemed real, with the grit and meanness ingrained in their souls. Natsu made her feel like she was talking to the ghost of what a person should be, an unreal ideal. The fact that she _knew_ he was kind with no ulterior motive made it even more unnerving.

He stood up.

“Okay,” he conceded, “Take care of yourself.”

He smiled dopily as he tucked Keiko’s letter into his jacket, right over his heart.

_That girl is so freaking lucky._

Keiko bowed slightly before walking off, the habit ingrained.

Natsu returned the gesture with a laugh and a muttered,

“So polite.”

She ignored him, even though a light blush suffused her cheeks at the compliment.

* * *

 

As she walked down the street in the direction of the _Lotus_ , her sense of unease grew. While moving she began analyzing her surroundings and focusing on her chakra sense, trying to find the source. She caught it right as it barreled into her, carrying her into an alley and slamming her into a wall.

Angelica wheezed breathlessly when something in her chest popped ominously, shock turning her numb. Before she could find a breath to make a noise a hand closed around her throat, cutting her off and making something crack, putting black spots in her vision. She tried to claw at the hand holding her, only to have her wrist slammed into the wall. Her bones broke like a twigs and she wheezed.

The slimy feeling of the chakra holding her was familiar and a few tears came to her eyes when she recognized it.

“Little foreign bitch isn’t so high and mighty now, is she?” Akihito hissed, breath stinking of alcohol.

Angelica choked on an answer, something pathetic like ‘please’ or ‘don’t’.

Akihito backhanded her and her cheekbone cracked. Her glasses clattered to the floor.

More tears fell and she tried to cringe away from the hand on her throat, staring pleadingly at the mouth of the alley. A woman paused, catching her gaze before moving on, apathetic.

Akihito’s emotions swirled and spilled across her, intensified by her pain and his touch.

Inferiority. Rage. Resentment. _Lust._

Angelica whimpered, fearfully and hated the rush of satisfaction the man felt.

“A bunch of _whores_ looking down on me, acting like they’re _better?_ ”

He shook her like a collared cat.

_What? Wait. Stop._

Everything was happening so fast and she couldn’t breath.

“You were begging me to help you, then you back out? After disrespecting me?” he snarled, “Bunch of bitches like you are asking for it.”

He let go of her wrist.

Angelica felt like she was drowning in a dark tide, thoughts scattered and panicking. She just wanted this to stop.

_I can’t breath._

His hand gripped her thigh, wrenching it to the side; something popped, thickly. He let go of her throat and she slumped as he ripped at her pants, growling at the layers.

_I still can’t breath._

Her breath left her in a whistle as she tried to pull in air, struggling weakly as Akihito wrenched her other leg. Her knee dislocated, causing her to cough.

_Stop. Stop. Stop._

She didn’t want this; she didn’t want to feel his _disgusting_ emotions as he assaulted her. She felt out his intentions, trying to push them away and failing. It was like gripping gossamer webs, no substance.

_No._

Akihito finally figured out the ties on her pants, and began peeling her out of her clothes.

**_No._ **

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then she _pulled._

Something liquid dripped from her nose as her forehead went numb and her thoughts became foggy and disjointed. She felt herself be dropped as her support let go of her legs.

Something picked her up.

Darkness.

.

.

.

She was dreaming.

White walls rose around her, curved like the petals of a flower bud.

Angelica gazed around, dreamy. She tried to stand, but couldn’t.

_Of course I can’t._

She looked down.

She saw that below her waist there was nothing, only the bottom of the pistil. She blinked.

Maybe she _was_ the pistil.

_I’m a flower._

She giggled.

She looked around idly.

_I wonder when I’ll bloom._

There, the petals had parted slightly, revealing the mirror lake from her dream before.

She leaned forward, trying to glimpse more of the outside world.

An enormous eye eclipsed the view: pale and bright as the after-image of lightning. A wind blew Angelica’s hair from her face, smelling of ozone and blood.

“Is our little flower blooming?” the beast rumbled.

.

.

.

She woke up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the line break Angelica is assaulted by Akihito but isn't explicitly raped, she is hurt pretty badly.
> 
> My poor baby I'm so sorry, but ploooooooot.


	5. Must be Tuesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angelica wakes up, is exposited upon, and still doesn't know shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Welcome back readers! I am in the middle of Hell Week and just tarted a new job but whoowee I needed some stress relief. On that note God of War is awesome and Kratos in the world's most Okayest Dad.

She was in pain, but it was distant, nothing but shifting blurry figures.

She went back to sleep.

.

.

.

The next time was clearer and she could hear muffled voices. They didn’t make any sense so she decided sleep was better.

.

.

.

“Call someone who can use chakra, then!”

 

“ _Were you not listening_ or are you just stupid?”

 

“If you would explain it better maybe I wouldn’t be asking stupid questions!”

 

_Ah, Kimiko, don’t yell at Dr. Izumi, she made my glasses._

_._

_._

_._

“How could you let this happen? You where supposed to guard her!”

 

“I can’t be everywhere at once Sachiko, _you know that._ ”

 

“I just…how could this happen to her?”

 

_Sacchan don’t cry._

_._

_._

_._

“What about Yuki?”

 

_Yuki?_

 

“We still have her on break, but even with the limit extended Aiko won’t wake up in time.”

 

“I’ll do it, when I’m not working I’ll look for someone, so please keep her on.”

 

A pause.

 

“It’s what Aicchan wanted.”

.

.

.

Angelica returned to the world in fits and starts, falling in and out of consciousness. When she finally woke up for good, faculties intact, she was in a world of pain. There were so many sources that she couldn’t differentiate.

The medication kept it from bothering her too much, the pain sealed behind a wall of fog. She turned her head, taking in the sight of pale blue hair laying on her bedside and the hand clutching her own.

“Sacchan,” she tried to say, but what came out was a broken wheeze. Alarm occurred to her vaguely, wondering where her voice had gone.

The woman jerked from sleep, looking up with bloodshot eyes and tearstained cheeks.

She choked.

“You’re awake,” she whispered, and then louder, “She’s awake!”

Angelica winced at the volume, as there was a thumping of feet on the other side of the door before it was slammed open with force.

It seemed like half the _Lotus_ poured through the entryway.

Nami tripped over Emi, Momoka was carrying a terrified Yuki, and Keiko sobbed as she ran ahead, pushing aside Hinami.

Keiko collapsed at Angelica’s bedside, blubbering.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you to go out.”

Angelica blinked, overwhelmed.

Keiko leaned forward, reaching to hug Angelica while she sobbed, only to get her arms slapped away by Sachiko.

“She’s still recovering you idiot!”

Angelica let the worry and warmth wash over her. The sedative she was on kept her from really feeling the chakra around her in detail, sparing her the anxieties attached to her friends’ relief. Keiko nearly started arguing with Sachiko, when Yuki stepped forward to lay a hand over Angelica’s, expression soft and chakra rippling with something she had never felt before.

Content.

The soft roar of the other girls speaking blanketed the room.

Dr. Izumi entered with Mama not far behind an hour later.

Yuki and Sachiko were curled around a drowsy Angelica on the bed, while the other women were playing a spirited game of poker on the floor. Hinami had provided the deck, of course, before being summarily forbidden to play. She was legendary in the brothel and out for being a card shark.

Mama waved at the girls, “Out. I need to talk to Aiko.”

The girls on the floor rose to leave immediately, Yuki following close behind while eyeing Angelica’s bed anxiously. Sachiko wavered; fierce protective loyalty burned in her, making Angelica twitch away like she was too close to an open flame.

It raged against her ingrained obedience and respect for Mama.

The older woman’s features softened.

“I only want to talk to her privately Sachiko, don’t worry.”

Mama’s emotions swirled.

Guilt. Regret. The barest hint of relief buried under it all.

Angelica frowned the matron’s mental state.

Sachiko conceded, rising from the bed and brushing a faint kiss on her friend’s forehead before leaving.

Dr. Izumi stepped forward first, adjusting the IV next to the bed and running her fingers over the bandages around Angelica’s neck.

“Any pain? Tap twice for no and once for yes.”

Well, she knew she _should_ be in pain even if she didn’t actually feel it.

She tapped twice with her uninjured hand, gaze wandering down to her hospital gown and the swathe of bandages wrapped around her upper body. Stiff casts and wrappings immobilized her legs; the same went for her right wrist, bandages obscured her vision in her right eye.

It was strange that she hadn’t really noticed that earlier.

_I am on some_ really _good drugs._

Izumi asked more questions and seemed satisfied with the results of her inquiries.

“I have to ask you not to try and move your head at all,” Angelica gave her a questioning look, “that… _man_ did some damage to your larynx and hyoid, I had to open you up to help mitigate the damage and keep you breathing.”

The doctor sighed.

“Speaking is out of the question for a good while, maybe never,” she laid a hand on Angelica’s, “I’m sorry.”

Her chakra wavered with guilt and regret; an edge of distant sympathetic grief tinged it with the taste of salt.

Angelica worked her jaw around the taste.

_That’s new._

Or old seeing as she processed most of her chakra senses as taste and smell for the first few weeks she came to this world, not that she knew that at the time.

She tapped once to indicate her understanding.

Izumi stepped back, waving Mama forward.

The woman was hesitant, an odd look on a woman that was never anything but confident and commanding. She sat in the chair at Angelica’s bedside gingerly.

She cast around for something to say to open conversation.

“Are you…no that’s a foolish question,” she sighed, looking twice her age, eyes on her lap.

Angelica reached over with her left hand to lay it over the matron’s.

Mama looked up and seemed to gain strength from Angelica’s open expression, even if it was hazy from the drug in her system.

“I need you to answer a few questions for me Aiko, your…assault, I need more details.”

Her lips thinned and Angelica felt something hot flash under her own skin as the memory of ‘ _handsdisgustnononono’_ knocked against the somnolence of her haze.

She almost nodded before remembering Izumi’s orders.

She tapped once.

“My first question; did you use chakra?”

Angelica felt her eye widen and she looked to Izumi, barely able to make out the woman’s stony expression without her glasses.

She tapped twice.

Mama leaned forward, curiosity burning alongside her growing worry.

“Do you have any family members with unusual abilities with chakra?”

Angelica felt her features twist at the thought.

Not unless you counted her brother’s ability to do acrobatic double-dutch.

She tapped twice.

Mama frowned.

“Do you know what happened after the attack?”

Angelica’s lips twitched.

_No._

The woman sighed.

“That man carried you to the _Lotus,_ he was out of his mind, begging us to help you and saying he was in love. He kept saying he was sorry for what he did, it was like he was drugged.”

Angelica’s expression twisted with incredulity.

Mama grimaced.

“I know. That’s not the most puzzling part; he dropped dead a few hours later, no warning and no cause.”

She looked Angelica in the eye and took her hand.

“I need you to answer me honestly, I only want to protect you,” her chakra burned fiercely at the declaration, “do you remember what you did?”

Angelica tried to think back, cringing at the memories, but nothing came to mind.

It was only that stomach curdling desperation and the feeling of helplessness that blanked out everything.

_No._

Izumi slumped at the answer as Mama let out a breath, disappointed.

She patted Angelica’s hand and moved to rise only to be held in place when the woman grasped desperately at her wrist. She met Mama’s gaze and tried to ask every question trapped behind her teeth.

_What is chakra null?_

_Why are you asking me these questions?_

_Did I kill that man?_

_What are ninja?_

_Why am I here?_

“When you can communicate again we’ll talk,” Mama offered.

Angelica felt a flush of rage; she would _never_ be able to talk. It was always like this, Mama dodging her questions and Kimiko following suit. It was beyond irritating and it made her feel _helpless_.

She clutched Mama’s wrist tighter, mouth opening to say _anything_ , damn the consequences, when Izumi spoke up.

“Reika, tell her,” she whispered, “You’ve kept this all from her long enough, look at where it got her.”

Angelica didn’t have time to wonder at the matron’s given name, a mystery that had many a bet placed on it in the brothel. She kept her gaze on Mama and gripped tight, willing her to give in with all her might.

Mama glared at Izumi.

“Knowing the situation won’t make her any less vulnerable, _nothing_ will make this any less terrifying _. But knowing will only worsen her fear!”_ she said, voice rising.

Izumi strode closer; chin tilted in defiance and dark eyes glittering.

“She’s not Hana!” she rebuked, “Aiko’s situation is different, and _you know it_. Now we have definitive proof that she has a dangerous ability and _you still want to keep her ignorant of her potential.”_

Mama stood, frustration and grief creating a great eddy in her chakra.

“If she leaves they will _use_ her! Abuse her abilities until she has nothing left to give and then throw her out like yesterday’s trash, _no matter what she does._ ”

Izumi flinched as Mama got in her face, leaning away from the shorter woman.

“It only takes a touch, a little rough handling, and she ends up hospitalized! How can you think that she should know, that she should leave?”

Angelica smacked her hand into the bedframe, causing it to rattle.

Mama and Izumi looked towards her bed.

She made a gesture for talking with her hand and the gestured from them to her, hoping they’d get the message.

Mama’s face creased with old grief and all of her anger seemed to leave her in a wheeze.

Izumi looked away, regret and apology pulling at her chakra.

“Tell her Reika, and let her make her own choice,” she murmured and walked out of the room.

The door shut with a quiet click.

Mama sat.

“Being chakra null is a curse,” she said, eyes downcast once again, “it’s a medical condition characterized by having so little chakra in the body that it is all used to handle the basic functions of living.”

Her eyes clenched shut.

“It also means that those who are chakra null are especially vulnerable to sickness and physical duress, but that’s not really the true curse.”

She laced her fingers together, clenching them.

“People who are chakra null have increased sensitivity to outside chakra sources. It means that no matter how good a ninja is at hiding they will _always_ be spotted by someone who is null.”

“The nobles in the capital are always seeking out chakra null people to help them guard their homes and livelihoods, but on the other hand they can always just hire criminal ninja to serve the same purpose with less required maintenance and more ability to protect assets.”

Angelica clenched her jaw, her throat aching and the taste of salt curling her tongue.

“So, chakra null people become a _commodity_ , an amusement. They’re the first target for an infiltrator and so weak that anyone can take advantage of them.”

Mama smirked bitterly.

“They are the favorite kind of whore in brothels, helpless to fight back against anything and prone to bruising.”

Mama looked up and reached forward to brush a strand of hair from Angelica’s face.

“You’re something different, though. People who are chakra null usually have a range confined to a few meters, you can sense out nearly half the town. Beyond that you don’t have _any_ chakra.”

Angelica’s gut clenched as her mind tried to putter through the implications.

“You would be so _useful_ , to anyone who got their hands on you. You wouldn’t be able to do anything to fight it either.”

Mama gestured widely.

“This is even worse, because it seems like you have an ability destructive enough to brainwash a man and kill him within hours. Not only that, but you can’t be healed using a chakra source. Izumi barely brushed you with a small technique and your skin nearly started peeling off.”

Mama laughed humorously.

“The only way to ensure that you retain use of your legs and a future ability to walk would be to send you to a big city for surgery. In the capital, you would be spotted immediately, not even my connections could protect you.”

She leaned over, covering her eyes.

“Our only option would be to send you to Konoha, I’m more sure that I could keep you from discovery there. But it puts you at _so much risk.”_

Her voice cracked on the last words.

Angelica looked at her, dazed.

If she didn’t go to Konoha she might not ever be able to walk again. However, it presented the worst kind of danger. Angelica doubted that another brothel would be as warm as the _Lotus._ If what Mama said was the truth, if she was found she could be forced to live under the threat of death to protect some arrogant noble’s wealth. If someone less savory discovered her she would be sold and raped to death in some back alley red light district.

Not only that, but it seemed that on top of her annoying as shit and _useless_ empathy power, she had the potential to freaking _kill_ people with her _brain._ The thought was terrifying. What if she hurt someone by accident?

But, even so, she wanted to try. She had known how vulnerable she was since she arrived in this place; it wasn’t a revelation. She had been bruised and hurt plenty from the innocent roughhousing from her friends. Her weakness making her an attractive target for unsavory types was new, though, if in a different way than she thought.

Regardless, she wanted to be able to walk and run and move places with ease. So she grasped Mama’s hand and traced the outline of a leaf into the meat of her palm and tapped the bed railing.

The woman choked on something like a sob.

“Okay,” she said, leaning over to hug Angelica, “okay.”

.

.

.

It took them a week to arrange proper transport and a surgery suite at the Konoha General hospital. The expanse of Mama’s reach was many times larger than Angelica had originally thought. She didn’t know if that should be relieving or worrying.

She was to be transported by wooden wagon, which had driven Izumi insane with making a shock-absorbing bed to make the trip less taxing on the young woman.

The girls from the _Lotus_ had heard the news almost immediately and began pouring in to spend time with her and give her their well wishes.

Kimiko knitted her a pair of scarves, thick and brightly colored. Emi had made her a set of folding fans, embroidered with simple phrases to help her communicate more easily. Her favorite was the delicate lace one with the phrase ‘Fuck you’ embroidered in rainbow color. Hinami gave her a deck of custom playing cards with the girls from the _Lotus_ painted on the backs. Yuki gave her a picture of the girls, all in one shot taking up the front room of the brothel and grinning for all they were worth.

It was a relief to know that the girl was now working in an attached restaurant inside the _Lotus_. Sachiko had found someone to partner with Haru and open up the business.

Momoka got her a frame for the aforementioned picture.

Her glasses had been returned to her no worse for wear at the hands of Dr. Izumi.

“These things are tougher than you think,” the woman had said with a jaunty wink and a gesture to the golden lattice etched into the arms.

By the time Angelica had to get on her transport she had two new bags of items and an eye full of tears. Sachiko made sure to see her off, telling her to take care of the limited edition Icha Icha comics the woman had gifted to her.

Kimiko carried her into the back of the wagon to set her on the specially made bed, she took a moment to pin Angelica’s hair out of the way with her new lotus pin from Nami and slipped a thick sheaf of paper under her blanket.

“I wrote it all in hiragana,” she whispered, “I think you deserve it since I hid so much from you.”

The woman gave her a wobbly smile before leaving the wagon.

Angelica waved at the women, laughing internally as Sachiko began crying and turned to tuck her face into Kimiko’s shoulder.

The wagon began moving, Tohru calling to his horses, and telling her to brace herself.

She sighed.

_This is going to take awhile._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so we get to know some stuff that yall have probably already guessed, but Angelica didn't. If your late to the game I'm kinda making chakra more than just secrets and stuff and its not far off from cannon that being a shinobi boils down to the number game at a certain point.  
> Next stop is Konoha and what I like to call the Making Friends in High Places and Learning How to End the World arc.


	6. Heatstroke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angelica risks her life, takes a trip, and finds a piece of the puzzle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello readers!!! Hell week is kicking my ass and yet I find time to write this chapter. Bless. I also edited the previous chapter to make it flow a little better and changed some minor details. So I'm juggling the possibility of a romance in my head, you might catch hints of it in this chapter. No guarantee that it'll be with a canon character tho.

_Hey, its Kimiko, I hope this letter keeps you entertained…_

_…When I started the Academy at Konoha I was ecstatic, it was real life magic and I’d be one of the people who could use it. I was in for a bit of a disappointment later when they told me I just didn’t have the power. I could have lived with that…_

Angelica read slowly, stumbling over the hiragana, about Kimiko’s life in Konoha, her hopes, dreams and expectations.

_…I had so many questions that no one could answer._

_What, exactly, was chakra?_

_It was always the same spiel, Yin and Yang, the physical and the spiritual. Genetics play a role, blah, blah, and blah. But, I wanted to know, what was the actual measure of power output? Are there energies other than chakra? Everyone seemed to be obsessed with labeling everything ‘chakra’ and leaving it at that even as they panted after genetic abilities and bloodlines._

Angelica’s brow furrowed as she accepted a bowl of broth from Tohru, the flames of their camp casting flickering shadows over Kimiko’s neat boxy handwriting.

… _I asked to be moved to research, or ‘Jutsu Development’, confident in my grades and eager to find out the mechanics behind chakra and_ why _, exactly it existed and its limits. Only I was pretty and a girl with no chakra capacity. Not the kind they wanted anyway. They scoffed at me for wanting to be a researcher ‘how could you develop jutsu if you can’t perform them?’ they asked._

_But they wanted me for other things._

_Maybe I should explain._

_When an academy hopeful fails out for lack of chakra capacity they are usually shunted out of the ninja track and never seen again._

_Girls are different, though._

_If you’re pretty and show talent, they’ll ask you to join a ‘special division’. Parsed down to basics they want you to prostitute yourself out for ‘the good of the village’ to be used and abused for pittance pay while they shove loyalty to the village down your throat with whoever’s cock you have to choke on._

_I refused._

_I’d like to say I knew their angle, but I was just raging at the system with all the vinegar in my stunted 12 year-old body._

_My parents weren’t well off and they were angry at my quitting the academy. It was an honorable track to a high-paying job. All ninja receive benefits from the government, no matter how lowly…_

Angelica sipped tea from her mug; swallowing a pill with her mouthful and listening to Tohru sing a ditty about a boar and a stag as the horses clopped along. It was so much to take in, along with the complicated pages on chakra and its functions attached to the back of the pamphlet. The phonetic hiragana gave way to the more complicated katakana writing for ease. Luckily, Kimiko had included a word bank.

It explained so much about the natural enhancements of the people around her and her ‘allergy’ to foreign chakra. There were a lot of gaps in the knowledge and notes from Kimiko about her own limited research.

Kimiko had theorized from historical accounts that chakra was a foreign energy that had been introduced from an outside source. Temple writings and lost historical accounts found in the Land of Waves indicated that chakra history didn’t extend past one thousand years. Which supported the woman’s theory because there were plenty of historical accounts from _before then._

 _However_ , Kimiko went on, _most of the surviving stories are legends and have chakra activity attributed to them because of the mystical elements in the writing._ Many of the accounts didn’t match known chakra behaviors when it came to supernatural phenomena, supporting Kimiko’s conclusion.

Angelica sighed and wished she had known months ago. Instead she had to struggle along, guessing and theorizing without any solid input from anyone.

Her hiragana skills improved by leaps and bounds, stuck in bed as she was. She read Kimiko’s letter twice in the time it took to travel to Konoha, latching onto the letters to help distract her from the burgeoning pain as her pill supply ran low. At the edges of every thought, uncurbed by pain medication, a shadow of _that man_ loomed.

She desperately pushed it down and when reading couldn’t entertain she focused on sensing chakra.

The ambient energy of the trees and wildlife flowed in the air, orderly and peaceful in contrast to the jovial roll of Tohru’s chakra. She made a game of how many birds she could pick out and distinguish from each other.

The wagon hit a pothole, jostling the hammock bed she lay in. She winced with pain and began counting the slats of wood that made up the top of the wagon.

According to Izumi, she had multiple fractures in her ribs as well as a cracked orbital and cheekbone. In her assault, her wrist had suffered a clean break, but her legs had not been so lucky. One of her patellae had been broken and dislocated, scattering bone fragments in her leg. Movement threatened to jostle the fragments into cutting an artery. Her other hip had been dislocated and many of the tendons had been torn, fracturing her pelvic bone.

The doctor had told her she was beyond lucky to be alive.

Izumi had performed a surgery to repair her larynx and attend her hyoid bone. Many of the tendons in her neck had been damaged in the attack, so the doctor had to perform an emergency Tracheostomy just to ensure that she could breath. The hole in her neck had been discomfiting at first, but she grew used to it quickly.

According to Izumi, after a few months she would be okay to have the tube removed. But, the woman wasn’t qualified to perform so many invasive surgeries and neither did she have the support team to aid her.

It was amazing how advanced the medical practice was in this world, and yet the rest of technology could be so primitive.

They had short-range radios, but no telephone lines: televisions and movie theatres but no broadcast channels. Music was consumed in live venues, with little to no existence of recording equipment meant to capture the subtly of the art.

It was a puzzling mess of anachronisms and according to Kimiko’s notes, Konoha and the hidden villages were some of the greatest bastions of technology outside the capitals.

Kimiko promised to come visit her in her letter as a postscript. Apparently every few years she took a whole year off from the _Lotus_ to follow her thirst for knowledge and travel all over. She mentioned that working for Mama gave her network that helped her dig up archeological finds and unusual phenomena connected to her interests. The post postscript asked where Angelica got her glasses and to remember to write the girls when she had the chance.

The gate guards at the enormous doors to the village gave Tohru’s cart a cursory search after he showed them some golden leafed documents; peaking at her when they opened the doors to the wagon. Angelica wanted to ask about the papers, but her lack of voice stopped her.

They were met a small ways from the gate at some kind of merchant station by two ninja, distinctive by their smooth flowing chakra and large reserves. Among the bustle of the station, with people yelling at each other and managing their livestock, Angelica cast out her senses. Neither of the ninja felt malicious, only dutiful, as they detached the hammock bed from the wagon frame and gathered her packs.

She was brought to the hospital through the back entrance, after a jarring leaping journey over the rooftops of the village; both of her escorts were extremely conscientious about staying out of sight in the dim twilight. Not for the first time, Angelica wondered how far Mama’s reach extended.

She was transported to a bed and rolled down the hall after being covered and told not to move. Her packs were tucked away in a locker hidden in a supply closet.

The cold lights and sterile smell made her teeth ache and all around her she could feel the dull echoes of pain and sickness seeping from the walls themselves, saturated by age and exposure. A whole team of surgeons waited for her in a suite when she was changed into a surgical gown, her twitchiness ignored as the two ninja stripped off her robe. They didn’t say a word to her, simply placing a mask over her mouth and commanding her to breathe.

After that, everything went blurry.

.

.

.

It took her 3 months of hospital food, isolation, and surgeries to be released from the hospital. Only for her to get released, mind. She was still in a wheelchair and despite her being able to remove the little piece of plastic that had held her airway open while she healed, she still could not speak.

The scar tissue was too thick for normal function in her vocal chords, one of the doctors explained perfunctorily as he examined her patient summary. His chakra had twitched with concentration and paranoia, and Angelica could almost taste his guilt over breaking the law. What law, she didn’t know, but she had the feeling that her entire existence was extremely under the table as far as the village was concerned.

They moved her to an apartment complex a few blocks away from the hospital and introduced her to her caretaker; a teenager named Daisuke. He was an apprentice at the hospital and currently loaded down with work from said apprenticeship.

From what Angelica knew he was a nice boy, caring and hardworking, but the added stress of caretaking for her and keeping up his schedule at the hospital left him overwrought. If she didn’t have the ability to sense his emotions she would surely feel more neglected. He really tried his hardest, but sometimes he forgot that she was a person who existed outside the 5 hours he spent with her a day.

That was why she was at the ramp of the handicap entrance to her apartment complex, the only one in the whole building, close to tears.

She clenched her good hand around the wheel of her chair and tried desperately to roll it over the crack in the road right before the ramp. Not for the first time she cursed rowdy young ninja for not watching where they roughhoused. The cloth bag holding her groceries swayed, her ribs ached with the strain, and the muscles in her legs twitched restlessly under their wrappings.

She couldn’t move the chair over the crack. The sun beat down on her, humid heat leaching the energy from her body.

Fear took root.

No one was around for the next few miles; the super was an old woman and wouldn’t be getting up from her reading chair for a few hours. Ninja leapt along the rooftops occasionally, ignoring the wheelchair bound figure below them.

Daisuke had told her he would be by late today, something about an extended study session.

Tears gathered in Angelica’s eyes as she snarled and slapped her hand uselessly against her chair, frustrated by her _weakness._

Her teeth buzzed and her head jerked up.

_That chakra._

It was heavy, buzzing like static, soothing against her anxious mind. It was the ninja from so long ago running across the rooftops.

She bit her lip and slumped as best she could; he wouldn’t notice. None of the _ninja_ bothered with civilians, after all. They were too small and _weak_ to be worthy of notice.

She sucked in a startled breath when he changed course once he was in sight of her. He landed without a sound behind her chair.

“Are you alright, ma’am?” he drawled.

She straightened, tilting her head and trying to glimpse him from under her hood. She made a gesture towards her throat before crossing her pinkies in an ‘X’ formation.

His heavy energy rippled with something like curiosity.

“Are you having trouble getting up this ramp?” he asked, walking around to kneel in front of her chair. His only visible eye was crinkled as if he was smiling.

She nodded, pulling a fan from one of her bags; she flipped it open after checking if it was the right one.

‘ _Help me, please.’_

His eye crinkled further at the sight of the fan.

Without further comment he grasped the handles of her chair and pushed it up the ramp. Relief swooped through her when they cleared the obstacle. She gave him the key for the handicap entrance so he could open the door.

She was surprised when he didn’t let go of her chair.

“Can you tell me your apartment number?”

She shook her head, but pointed down the hall. A room on the first floor was the only kind she could take, seeing as there were no lifts.

She really couldn’t tell him no when he held his hand out for her apartment key and rolled her inside. His chakra didn’t indicate any malicious intentions even as she tried to distance herself from it, afraid of influencing him somehow with her fear.

Nothing unusual had happened involving her empathy since _that day_ , but she had decided to proceed with caution. Comic book rules were a good guideline to live by in her opinion, if it kept her from randomly killing people.

He unhooked her groceries and carried them to the kitchen.

“Do you have a caretaker?” he asked, something hiding under the shifting tones of his chakra, even as his voice curled with cheerful disinterest.

She nodded yes when he looked back at her, shoulders hunching.

“Ah, where are they?” he hummed, eye sharp as he put the milk away, inspecting the nearly bare shelves of her refrigerator.

She waved her good hand in the universal so-so gesture.

“You don’t know?”

She shrugged as sweat began to gather on her neck. His chakra changed, worry suddenly obvious alongside a pressing irritation.

“It seems pretty irresponsible of them to leave someone chakra null on their own when all they have is one hand,” he said, tone dipping into seriousness.

Angelica felt her face pale as all the blood drained out of it. She shook her head frantically, waving one of her arms.

He noticed her panic.

“Don’t worry, a ninja village is one of the best places for someone with your condition. Someone like you isn’t very valuable in a place like this,” he assured, not sounding very reassuring _at all._

She squeaked the best she could with her damaged vocal chords.

He stood and put a kettle on the stove, filling it with water. A ramen cup was placed on the counter.

“I guess I’ll just have to help you out while we wait for your caretaker to show up.”

Angelica gaped, but his chakra was stalwart.

She sighed and waved him to do whatever he wanted, pulling back her hood. She rubbed self-consciously at her right eye and the faint surgical scars that marred the lid.

Recognition rippled through him.

“Are you from Tanzaku?” he asked, lightly.

She nodded, picking up a few cushions from the couch to support her back and make her chair more comfortable.

“How’d you get all the way to Konoha?” he wondered, uselessly. She couldn’t talk and she refused to write anything down, so she shrugged again.

He filled the ramen cup with steaming water when the kettle began whistling. She picked up a book on reading katakana from her coffee table and shoved her nose in it. The mouthwatering smell of salt invaded her nostrils.

“Come now, it might be a while before I leave, and you must be starving.” He said, taking a seat on her threadbare couch. Mama provided her a stipend, but it didn’t amount to much.

Angelica scowled and put down her book, reaching out with her casted arm. He moved the noodles away.

“First, can I have a name?” he asked cheerfully, despite his delicious hostage.

Angelica made an irritated spitting sound and grabbed the fan with her name on it from the pouch on her chair.

“Love and Fortune?” he read, “Aiko?” he guessed.

Angelica nodded and made grabby hands for the noodles and chopsticks.

He handed them over.

“My name’s Hatake Kakashi.”

The woman chewed on her noodles and tilted one of her shoulders to acknowledge his statement.

“Does this happen a lot?”

He gestured to the apartment, but she knew he meant being left alone. It happened frequently, but Daisuke always left premade meals and made sure she was clean. He only ever stayed long enough to put her through her exercises, before hurrying off. Not much time to talk, especially not in the slow way she was forced to with her lack of voice and one truly mobile hand.

Honestly, he provided her all she needed and she could feel herself recovering well. But, this time, he hadn’t left her any meals. His energy had been completely frazzled when he had been to see her yesterday, babbling about an upcoming exam and his chakra control scores on his practical the day previous.

A protective surge rose in her gut and she shook her head in denial.

Hatake hummed, his chakra curling doubtfully.

He tried to ask her more questions, but she didn’t acknowledge them, finishing her food and tucking herself into her study book.

Hatake sighed and pulled out a volume of Icha Icha, shameless.

Angelica rolled her eyes, as he got comfortable on the couch.

When the orange of twilight began to seep across the carpet, Daisuke banged into the apartment. Neither she nor the ninja on the couch flinched, her having sensed the boy before he even entered the block.

“I’m sorry Miss Aiko,” he panted, “I can’t believe I forgot something so important, I prom…” he paused.

Hatake sat up, his book rose in a jaunty wave.

“Yo,” he greeted.

Daisuke went pale as a sheet, freckles stark against his cheeks.

He saluted, dropping the bag of groceries in one of his hands.

“Hatake, sir,” he stuttered, eyes searching for Angelica’s as panic fluttered through him. He even tacked on honorific speech, something the woman had never heard from the earnest boy.

Hatake stood.

“I’m sorry if I don’t recognize you,” he said, insincerely, “but I was on my way to a meeting with a giant turtle about a box of pastries when I saw _your_ charge struggling to get to her apartment.”

Angelica felt her face twist at the ridiculous story, especially since he had told her he was heading home from a training session earlier. Never mind that he smelled fresh as a daisy. Some obscure ninja magic, if she had to guess.

Stark terror shot through Daisuke.

“I—well—I mean,” he tried to say, shrinking from Hatake. The older man didn’t move, but Angelica reached out and grabbed his green flack jacket.

When he looked her way she scowled, making a cut-it-out gesture, slicing her hand across her neck.

Hatake made to turn back to the boy; chakra curling with a complicated tangle of emotion that Angelica didn’t bother to parse. She slapped at his hip, aggressively, much to Daisuke’s horror.

It did more damage to her hand than to him,

“What?” he snapped, losing his composure briefly.

She bared her teeth and pointed at her caretaker and mimed talking.

The jerk was intelligent at least; he got her meaning on the first try.

“I’ll give you one chance to explain yourself, Genin,” he conceded, “make sure it’s good, because I can have you expulsed from the Corp. for dereliction of duty from this alone.”

Daisuke choked.

“No, please don’t,” he pleaded, “It was just one time.”

Hatake’s brow rose.

“I—no—I didn’t mean it like that,” he babbled, “It’s just that I had exams and a practical on top of my clinic hours this past week, and then I have to take Miss Aiko through her exercises with no chakra aid—,”

Hatake crossed his arms.

“If your teacher didn’t believe you could handle the workload, he wouldn’t have assigned you to this mission,” he rumbled.

“ _But he didn’t!_ ” Daisuke shouted and Hatake’s chakra rippled.

“Miss Aiko doesn’t have the funds for a caretaker and she spent all of her money on her surgeries,” he lied, and Angelica couldn’t help but admire the smoothness of it, “I agreed to help because she’s a friend of the family, but I can’t be here all the time and continue my apprenticeship at the hospital.”

His eyes were wide and miserable, begging Hatake to understand.

The older man’s chakra relaxed slightly as he processed what Daisuke had said.

“Is this true?” he asked Angelica.

She nodded, frantically.

His straight-backed authoritative posture melted away.

He smiled, eye crinkling.

“I see,” he said, “It’s very noble of you to help out a friend like this, but wouldn’t it be better to hire someone to help if you’re concerned?”

Angelica shook her head.

“Because of her condition, Miss Aiko is terribly sensitive to chakra, to the point of being allergic. I would need to hire professional staff versed in treatments without the use of chakra. It’s too expensive.” Daisuke lied through his teeth.

The real reason was that they wanted to keep Angelica off any and all records in Konoha, especially the hospital.

“This is the only time I have ever left without preparing a meal for Miss Aiko, and I plan never to let it happen again.”

Something like respect moved through Hatake.

“That is admirable,” was all he said before turning to Angelica.

“I hope you get better soon, Miss.”

Angelica scoffed and waved the man away, a smile pulling at her lips.

For all he had intimidated Daisuke and forced his company on her, he had done it out of genuine concern.

The door closed behind him with a click and Daisuke sunk to the floor, knees trembling.

“Oh sweet Mother, that was Hatake Kakashi,” he squeaked.

Angelica rolled over and patted him on the shoulder.

Once he got his breathing under control he got up to put the groceries away, taking a moment to admonish her for eating the cup ramen.

“This will only stunt your recovery Miss Aiko!”

Angelica had shrugged, dismissively and opened her book on katakana and a small chaptered story she was slowly slogging through.

“How did you meet him?” Daisuke asked half-focused on the curry he was making.

Angelica wrote down her situation earlier, painstakingly slow in hiragana, and handed it to Daisuke.

He grimaced.

“I really am sorry Miss Aiko, it must have been terrible. You could have gotten heatstroke!”

Angelica smiled reassuringly at the boy.

“This is bad though,” he continued, as he plated the curry and put the rest in the fridge.

“Hatake Kakashi is one of the best ninja in the village, people say he’s a Hokage candidate.”

Wow, he hadn’t acted like he was in the running to be the supreme leader of a ruthless military power.

“There’s not much we can do about it now other than inform the Lotus clan; moving you would be suspicious.”

He took a bite of his curry, eyeing Angelica until she ate a piece of hers.

“He’s really unpredictable, just,” he frowned, eyes worried, “we just have to be careful, alright?”

Angelica stared at her curry and fought the resentment simmering in her gut. How was she supposed to be careful? She couldn’t do _anything_ , even if she wanted to.

Later after a careful sponge bath and her exercises, she lay in bed.

She thought about the smooth heavy roll of Hatake Kakashi’s chakra and the breath of a great beast asking a flower when it would bloom.

The smell of blood and lightning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When it comes to anachronistic tech i'm of the opinion that kishimoto originally put more tech in because he planned for a short series and then got rid of it because it became a plot hole. In here I'm putting it down to controlling military powers trying to keep instruments of rebellion from the little people, thereby strangling tech development to hidden villages.


	7. Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angelica has a friend thrust upon her, finds her favorite food, and makes a discovery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooo. don't expect me to keep this update schedule I'm just super inspired right now and im writing like a demon.

Three days later someone knocked on her door. She looked up, puzzled, hair in a messy bun and her pajama top drooping down her shoulder.

_Hatake?_

He was holding something basket shaped, oblong shapes that felt like ‘ _lifepotentialdead_ ’ carried in it.

_Is that a fruit basket?_

Only one way to find out.

She opened the door after rolling over. She didn’t bother even attempting to change clothes, the event an hour-long endeavor.

“Yo,” the man drawled, hand rising in hello.

She nodded and rolled away from the door, heading to the kitchen and leaving him in the entryway.

His chakra jumped, surprised at her casual invitation.

“I brought a fruit basket,” he said as he set it on the kitchen table, “to make up for the other day.”

His eye roved the room as she grabbed the cutting board and a knife. She took one of the apples from the basket and began cutting it. It smelled and tasted like a Fuji apple, one of her favorites. There were also strawberries in the basket, and she shivered in anticipation of the jam filled cookies she’d be able to make.

Angelica offered the ninja a slice of apple. Only to find him on the other side of the room next to the coffee table in the second it took her to turn around. She tamped down on the instinctive irritation and fear at the casual inhumanity.

His chakra trembled.

“I—I—Is this Icha Icha deluxe edition? Comic exclusive?” he whispered, hands hovering over her comic books like he was afraid to touch them.

She smirked in amusement.

Superpowered ninja was also a smut nerd, who’d have thought.

She crunched into one of her apple slices before rolling over after putting them in a bowl. She tapped the table to draw his attention.

She nodded her affirmative.

Hatake made a weird dying whale sound and grasped her hands, mindful of her cast.

“Where did you get these? They were a Land of Snow exclusive that went out of circulation five years ago.”

She laughed at his enthusiasm, the sound turned odd and gulping by the scarring on her throat.

She grabbed one of the sheets of paper next to the comics, used to write down the hiragana translations as she read.

_It was a gift, more like a loan really._

“Could you lend them to me?” he asked, eye wide and puppyish as he kneeled by her chair like a child.

Angelica snorted, imagining the look on Sachiko’s face if even one page of her precious smut was bent out of place.

_No._

His chakra curled, genuinely disappointed, as he slumped.

The woman rolled her eyes, tapping his shoulder to make him look up again.

_You can read them here, if you want._

His expression lit up.

“Really, you wouldn’t mind?”

Angelica waved him off, not interested in getting back into the comics. It was a lot of vanilla smut with the occasional kink thrown in, not really her cup of tea.

They ended sitting together in her living room, him giggling over the comics and her reading a short story about the story of the moon princess.

Funnily enough, despite the blood pumping content of his comics Hatake did not feel an ounce of directed lust. Angelica was learning to tell the difference, recently. There was general arousal, usually unattached to anything. Then there was longing arousal, the need to find a partner intrinsic to the feeling. Then there was directed lust at a specific person or character.

Her time at the _Lotus_ had helped her when it came to distinguishing those kinds of emotions, but she had yet to meet anyone who could read smut and not feel an ounce of longing or directed lust.

_How odd._

.

.

.

He came by off-and-on the next few weeks to coo over Sachiko’s comics, and eat the food Angelica made. He was surprised to learn that the woman usually cooked for herself, despite the fact that her chair made it so her chest barely cleared the counters in the kitchen.

One day when they were sitting at the table he said,

“You’re not from around here, are you?”

Angelica looked at him dead in the eye and gestured to all of her.

“No, I mean you’re not from this continent. There are plenty of people with looks like yours in Lightning and Wind.”

Angelica took in that new bit of information with aplomb, and nodded.

“May I ask where?”

Angelica stopped eating and set down her spoon, stumped.

No one had really asked her to name her place of origin since she arrived on the continent. They usually just named her ‘foreign’ after hearing her accent and left it at that. Not that she had an accent anymore, seeing as she couldn’t talk.

Saying North America would be useless, no one had the context, and as a whole most people she had ran into were rather ethnocentric.

Homesickness swirled in her gut.

 _‘It doesn’t matter,’_ she wrote on her new chalkboard.

He frowned, but let it be.

.

.

.

One time when they were preparing mojo, only made with way too much garlic; damn the lack of spice on the continent.

After handling the steak and helping get it ready for marinating, Kakashi had gone to the sink to wash his hands of the blood. She had felt goose bumps crawl up her spine when his chakra had stilled and then _shivered._ She had tried to hunch away from it, block out the ‘ _guiltyguiltyimsoryyimsorrystopnostopplease’_ that curled on her tongue like bitter chocolate.

The water ran and he continued to wash his hands, his movements trembling as he scratched at them like he was trying to dig something out. He only stopped when she laid her own fingers over his. Then he shut off the water and left, his anxiety pulling on the tips of Angelica’s fingers and guilt weighing him down like an anvil.

.

.

.

The next time he came over she had cupcakes, frosted with the color scheme and name of his favorite Icha Icha protagonist.

.

.

.

One time he leaned over her too fast and jostled her legs. It took her half an hour to come down from her panic attack and the memory of Akihito ripping at her clothes.

.

.

.

Daisuke finished his apprenticeship and was relieved of his duty as her caretaker.

.

.

.

Even after he finished with the Icha Icha comics, he still came around. It somehow always coincided with Daisuke being absent and he always brought along some kind of book of folktales or historical writing. Eventually she just gave him a copy of her key the third time he broke in.

When she had tried to scold him for it he had looked at her in blank incomprehension and said her locks were easy to break.

_Ninjas._

_._

_._

_._

He nearly dropped his book when he saw her wobbling around on crutches the first time; sweat had made her hair cling to her neck and a wide smile had overtaken her face. His chakra had echoed her joy back at her, rippling and ecstatic.

It was an occasion that called for a celebration and he suggested a place called Yakiniku Q.

.

.

.

She huffed, exhausted, as she slid into the booth. Kakashi grabbed her crutches and set them under the table.

“You could’ve taken your wheelchair, you know,” he chuckled as he took his seat across from her.

Angelica scowled at him.

What would be the point of celebrating her ability to walk if she did?

He hummed like he read her mind, ordering steak and pork belly to start them off.

“It’s so refreshing to be out of that stuffy apartment,” he breathed, taking in the smell of cooking meat. She nudged him under the table, a half-smile tugging on her lips.

“That time you wanted to have a picnic at the training grounds doesn’t count, I cannot believe I let you talk me in to that.”

She had nearly been impaled by free flying kunai, Kakashi had ripped the Genin responsible a new one after he caught the weapon only centimeters from spiking Angelica in the chest.

Poor kid.

She pulled out a fan with the word _‘what’_ on it and gestured around, because the place looked like a Korean barbeque.

Kakashi, well used to communicating with her, got the message.

“It’s a restaurant inspired by a foreign countries food,” he explained, “ _Kankoku_ is the place, I think. _”_

_Does that mean what I think it means?_

Well.

She got out a sheet of paper and began writing in painstaking Hangeul; no kimchi had arrived at the table with any of the side dishes and a craving was making her mouth water.

She caught their waitress on her next pass, Kakashi watching curiously as she passed the paper to the woman and pointed to the kitchen.

If the place was anything like restaurants in the U.S, non-chains at least, someone native to this world’s equivalent to Korea had to be in the back. No one worth their salt wouldn’t have at least _some_ kimchi made. Especially when running a Korean restaurant.

Kakashi began grilling their food, watching as Angelica strained to peer at the kitchen doors.

She nearly fell out of her seat when the doors slammed open, revealing an old man in a chef hat. He looked around frantically before spotting her and rushing over.

“You’re from my homeland?” He asked in Korean, eyes glittering. The longing to see Sooyoung sideswiped her, the familiar cadence of the language music to her ears.

Angelica shook her head and held up a piece of paper, ripped from her notebook.

_‘I learned the language and visited as part of my schooling’_

He made a small gasping sound.

“It has been so long since I’ve seen my language written down,” he admitted tearfully, sitting down next to her in the booth, “can you speak it?”

Angelica nodded, but pulled down the neck of her shirt, exposing the surgical scars.

“Aigo, poor thing, how did you end up here?”

She shrugged and waved her hand in a gesture of lack of knowledge.

More importantly, she felt the man’s chakra. It was strong and rippled with faint homesickness and excitement.

Kakashi observed the whole exchange with fascination, idly turning the meat on the grill.

‘ _Do you know anyone else that is foreign in these parts?’_ her paper said.

            The man frowned.

            “No, most of those who are foreign here are still from the continent and speak the same language. I was marooned after the trading vessel I was on sunk near the coast. I was trying to raise money for a return trip on a different ship, only I ended up here, somehow.” He said, rueful.

After that he chattered at her, sending one of the waitresses to grab some cabbage kimchi. She learned that his name was Park Jun and that he had a daughter named Areum who was a Chunin.

In return she gave him her Korean name, Aeri.

She ate as she listened to him lament about the odd village system and the fact that shamans were assassins on the continent. When she asked him to clarify he explained that those able to use chakra were primarily healers and spiritual guides in his homeland.

It was fascinating to think about how the practices could have developed so differently.

Eventually, Jun left the table after wishing them well and extracting a promise for her to visit again soon.

She and Kakashi ate in silence for a moment.

“Aeri, huh,” he hummed.

Angelica smiled and shook her head.

“It’s not your name?”

_‘It’s the name that I use when speaking that language, it’s easier to pronounce.’_

His eye crinkled into a smile.

“Then what’s your actual name?”

Angelica wrote it out in hiragana and handed it over, amusement pulling her lips into a smirk.

Kakashi set his chopsticks down to read it.

“A—Angerrikua,” he stuttered, tilting the page and looking puzzled over the spelling.

Angelica held her hands up in an X.

“I wasn’t even close, was I?” he chuckled, tucking the paper into his jacket.

She shrugged cheerfully, because he had gotten pretty close for a first time.

He ended up having to carry her home, her legs cramped up barely a foot out the door.

.

.

.

Kakashi left on a mission.

For that week she couldn’t leave her apartment except in her wheelchair, walking was too much of a strain. She sat at her window and resented the people who walked past, physically capable and so much stronger than her.

.

.

.

She rolled restlessly around her apartment, observing the birds flying around a tree across the street with their chakra. They were in love in their animal way and she was lonely. All of her letters to the _Lotus_ were written and sent, and something sticky and black pulled at her ribs.

She didn’t realize she had a panic attack until she looked up an hour later, thighs aching with strain from where she had clenched them together.

Her head throbbed.

The birds had killed each other, laying in a bloody mess of feather and wing at the foot of their nest.

 

.

.

.

She locked herself in her apartment.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi loves Icha Icha, the fact that Angelica is a fascinating puzzle is a bonus for that guy. Also his protective instincts are turned to 11 cuz seriously he feels like a strong wind could snap his new friend in half.


	8. Get A Clue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angelica pets a trash cat, makes some progress, and has many regrets.

When Kakashi got back she threw books and everything she kept on hand to make him leave. His chakra had swirled with hurt and confusion, but he left easily enough. She didn’t even answer the door when Daisuke came to visit, fear swirling in her gut like a whirlpool.

A squirrel cracked its head open on the sill of her window, its little chakra spiking and chaotic.

She crawled into the corner of her apartment and clenched her hands in her hair. Pulling desperately, hoping the pain would stop whatever was happening, but it was like the one moment had opened a door.

No people came to bang on her door and as much as she tried to retreat into herself, her senses grew in sensitivity.

The superintendent continued to go about her day unaffected. Her chakra flowed naturally.

A neighborhood dog broke its own neck.

.

.

.

She could feel _everything._

_._

_._

_._

She hobbled outside, careful with her crutches and any dips in the sidewalk. In the Hokage tower ninja bustled like ants, glowing and bright. In the west a training ground lay empty.

Kakashi was at Ichiraku ramen, heavy chakra buzzing.

Daisuke was walking through the halls of the hospital, his chakra carrying an undertone of ‘ _worryeatingAiko’._

A cat yowled from an alleyway as she walked past, energy spiking into chaos as it threw itself from a fence and cracked its skull on the ground. Angelica winced and kept walking.

When she reached her goal, scowling as she hobbled over roots and stray branches, she sighed with relief. It was an abandoned training ground, littered with rusted kunai, bent and broken. The wooden targets were in shattered disrepair and eroded rubble covered the ground.

She sat in a clear spot and forced her shoulders to relax. Her jaw popped as she forced a yawn, her teeth aching from constant grinding. She needed control.

_I’m Jean Gray._

She had weird empathic powers, one’s that she had used to kill a man and were currently turning her into a menace to the local wildlife. However, they were _her_ powers and she could learn how to control them—preferably without the ninjas finding out and using her for something nefarious.

The fact that it was only animals, things with small amounts of chakra and less developed brains, assured her that she wasn’t completely without hope.

She had killed Akihito, so she was capable of killing other people. If she wasn’t that must mean that some part of her was preventing her power from getting too out of control. The only instances in which she had successfully manipulated a living being were when she was extremely stressed. Since the first incident she had been constantly anxious and caught in a cycle of toe-curling migraines from the tension.

Ergo: the random animal death. That was her running theory, at least.

Angelica let out a measured breath and forced her shoulders and jaw to relax once again.

She focused on her senses, peering over the village. The ninja district: full of leaping men and woman, disdainful of the foot traffic.

Kakashi, at the grocery store choosing between a pair of eggplants.

Daisuke, still doing rounds at the hospital.

She lost herself following the roots of one of the tall trees in the shopping district, following the twining lattice of lively chakra all the way to the edge of the village. It was fascinating how far the root systems—she sucked in a shocked breath as she was blindsided by chakra so bright it needed a warning label.

She flinched back into her body, pulling at her senses until they became less focused, letting her ignore the input from outside the training ground. Her shoulders drooped and her hands were loose and relaxed. She sighed with something like relief.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw a raccoon at the edge of the trees. It’s nose twitched as it focused on her and its chakra rippled on the edge of that flaring madness she induced in animals.

Bile rose in her throat and a headache pulsed in her temples.

The raccoon’s chakra flickered with the beginnings of supernatural terror. Angelicas forced herself to breath and relax her muscles.

_I’m fine, this is fine, and it’s a sweet, cuddly trash cat._

She flicked open one eye and the raccoon stared back, paralyzed but not braining itself on the nearby rocks. Its tiny ears flinched back and forth and its eyes were like black dewdrops.

Something gooey and warm curled in her and she wondered what it would be like to pet the animal. She’d always wanted a pet, ever since her cat had died the year before she started traveling.

She was surprised to feel the animal’s chakra flicker into something affectionate. Her head ached like every time she manipulated something as the raccoon chittered and ran towards her. It huffed as it snuggled into her lap, licking at her fingers and grabbing at her arms.

She giggled at the ticklish feeling and ruffled its fur, pulling the raccoon to her chest with a coo.

It’s chakra was warm and prickly and her knees felt like liquid. Tears stung her eyes and relief bubbled in her. The raccoon licked at her face, chattering with animal concern.

_I’m fine. You’re fine; I’ve figured this out._

Just like she had suspected, it was tied to her emotions.

Only, that opened a whole new can of worms. People couldn’t just whip their emotions back and forth however they willed them.

There had to be another way.

The raccoon wiggled, suddenly anxious, so Angelica took a calming breath and thought about the warmth of the little animal body in her lap and the softness of its fur.

The raccoon calmed again, bubbling with affection.

She let it go, pushing it out of her lap and shooing it away doing her best to project the feeling of ‘ _go away’_.

It practically leapt from her arms, chattering as it headed for the trees, chakra flaring with urgency.

The dusk colored the leaves orange, making her squint at the encroaching darkness. Idly, she checked on Kakashi’s chakra, an almost compulsive habit since she’d forced him out of her apartment. She blinked when she found his energy flaring with violence and happy cheer. The sun-bright chakra of the person who had blinded her earlier was nearby along with a smaller, more controlled energy that felt vaguely familiar.

She flicked her gaze around and felt the ache of her legs and hips from sitting on the hard rocks. Training Ground Three was closer than the hospital; even as something small and guilty curled in her stomach she started the arduous process of getting her feet under her and arranging her crutches.

She wouldn’t make it back to her apartment tonight if she didn’t get any help, neither would she make it to the hospital in time to catch Daisuke.

She cursed her eagerness and her own panic for the whole situation, as she began hobbling in the direction of Kakashi’s dense chakra.

Hopefully, she’d make it before he left the training ground.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angelica is a human mess and that is exactly why she gets along with actual Human Mess Kakashi Hatake so well.


	9. Make-up

When she arrived, panting and limping heavily, it was almost dark. Kakashi’s chakra had stopped flickering with battle readiness and the other two chakras were relaxed and satisfied. They were heading towards the training ground exit at a walk and it was no wonder, their energy loose with the feeling of a good workout.

She began banging her crutches on the fence hoping to attract their attention before they decided to leap onto a roof or something more inconvenient.

“What the hell?” a young voice asked, near shouting.

The bright chakra flared like a miniature supernova, making Angelica squint uselessly.

Kakashi’s energy perked up, alert like the pricked ears of a hunting dog.

The group detoured as Kakashi casually turned to stroll towards her. His energy flickered warily when he spotted her, hurt curling faintly in its flow.

She gave him a sheepish wave, wincing and lowering her hand when the action forced her to put too much weight on her legs. His gaze sharpened.

“Hello Miss,” the pink haired girl beside him greeted. Curiosity radiated off of her even as her expression shifted into something warm and polite.

Angelica smiled and nodded, ignoring the brief ‘ _howrudeitsfine’_ that rippled from the girl. She gestured to Kakashi and tried to make hand sign for ‘Sorry’. He had taught her some of the basic communication signs favored by the ninja of Konoha awhile back. Unfortunately, the language was extremely limited and left much to be desired when communicating more complicated ideas. Her fist circled in front of her chest, making the pad of one of her crutches dig into her underarm.

The action unbalanced her, her crutch wobbling and messing up her stance. A lance of pain shot up her legs when they instinctively tried to support her weight. Her ruined vocal chords produced a choked gurgle when she fell, eyes clenching closed against the inevitable pain of hitting the ground.

The bright kid shouted in alarm.

She sucked in a breath when strong arms caught her around the chest, easily catching her and shifting her into a bridal carry.

“How long have you been on your feet?” Kakashi rumbled; chakra rolling under her hands like weighted silk.

She held up 7 fingers and then made a more-or-less gesture.

He sighed.

“If you plan on spending the day wandering around you should use your chair, the only thing you’re doing by being stubborn is setting back your recovery.”

He strolled over to a bench, absently calling to the blonde boy to pick up her crutches. He settled her on the wood with a grunt, mindful of her legs and hips.

The girl from earlier stepped forward, easy concern radiating off of her and her hands glowing with green energy that raised the hair on the back of Angelica’s neck.

“Here, let me check on her,” she said.

Angelica flinched from her, even as Kakashi caught the girl by the wrist.

“Not a good idea Sakura,” he smiled, visible eye curving, “she’s null and has an extreme sensitivity.”

The bright boy made a questioning sound as he walked up crutches slung over his shoulder.

“What’s null?”

Sakura sighed, understanding curling in the air.

“It’s when someone isn’t born with enough chakra, Naruto, they can’t use jutsu and have weak immune systems.”

“Simply put,” Kakashi tacked on, giving the girl a nod.

The newly named Naruto scratched his head.

“So like Bushy-Brow?”

The pink haired girl rolled her eyes and Angelica squinted at her no longer glowing hands. That chakra felt familiar.

“No, Lee has a pathway mutation that makes it difficult for him to mold chakra outside his body and change its nature,” she held up one hand demonstratively, “he can still focus his chakra to grant him strength and speed to help him with his taijutsu.” she clenched her hand with a brief flare of chakra, causing a small pop of displaced air and wind, “Someone who’s chakra null is many times weaker than the average citizen with immune deficiency on top of that, its not that they _can’t_ mold chakra, so much that they don’t _have_ any chakra.”

The boy turned wide blue eyes to Angelica, admiration and amazement showing in them and his energy.

“Wow, lady, you must be super tough,” he chuckled, smiling brightly.

Angelica nodded absently, still thinking and trying to place where exactly she had seen that pink hair before.

She snapped her fingers when it came to her.

She patted at Kakashi’s vest; the man had watched the entire exchange between the teenagers with a weird nostalgia and fondness. He held a hand out to her on instinct, letting her draw letters in the palm of his hand.

“Cherry Blossom?” he murmured.

Angelica nodded, pointing at the girl, who had progressed from her information session to lecturing Naruto about rudeness of bringing attention to other people’s disabilities.  

“She did go with me on that mission didn’t she?” he hummed.

She nodded, a grin brightening her features, before turning more solemn.

‘ _I’m sorry’_ she spelled into his palm.

_‘I was in a bad place and I took it out on you, it was uncalled for.’_

His gaze softened as he leaned over her, comfortable and warm. His energy rolled with understanding.

“We all have our moments,” he chuckled lightly, betrayed by his heavy relieved chakra, knowing that he hadn’t done something to cause her distress.

Sakura and Naruto continued to bicker.

‘ _I’m sorry I hurt you.’_ Her grip tightened as she ran her thumb over his loose fingers, catching on his rough calluses.

Kakashi smiled and shook his head, squeezing her hand as reassurance and friendship lit him up inside.

There was silence.

Angelica looked up, brow furrowing at the mischievous disbelief radiating from the two teenagers.

Kakashi looked up and exasperation rippled through him.

He didn’t show it, smiling in that odd way of his.

“Is that your girl—,” Naruto started, lips pulling into a smirk before Sakura elbowed him in the side brutally. He hunched over with a pained hiss.

“Do you all want to go eat? I’m sure Miss—,” Sakura paused and looked at Angelica.

“Aiko,” Kakashi supplied.

“Miss Aiko is tired and hungry after being up and about for so long.”

To punctuate the statement Angelica’s stomach roared its displeasure, causing Naruto to laugh.

Angelica turned pleading eyes to Kakashi and mimed bringing food to her mouth.

‘ _My treat.’_ She mouthed.

His weakness hit, he had no choice. Kakashi Hatake could never pass up free food.

.

.

.

The journey to Ichiraku was filled with pseudo-sly looks from Kakashi’s students and chatter that Angelica couldn’t answer. From her place on Kakashi’s back all she could do was nod or shake her head. Kakashi took it upon himself to explain that she was mute after Naruto started yelling and looking genuinely hurt by her silence.

The entire journey consisted of the teenagers falling into whispered conferences and asking pointed questions that Kakashi avoided with trademark nonchalance and a nose in his Icha Icha book. Which was a new edition, now that Angelica had a chance for a closer look.

They ended up picking up the kids’ old school teacher on the way, him greeting Naruto with such bright, familial fondness in his chakra that Angelica couldn’t help but smile.

“Ah, you must be Miss Aiko,” Iruka had said the moment he saw her, unprompted.

Her puzzled look was ignored, as well as Naruto’s questions about how the man knew her.

A cat slinked out of an alleyway to twine around Kakashi’s ankles, mewling for Angelica’s attention. Angelica had blushed and barely been able to nudge the animal’s chakra to make it go away. It left her head aching so she spent the rest of her journey with her eyes closed and tucked into Kakashi’s shoulder.

.

.

“Naruto!” Teuchi called cheerfully when they ducked under the overhang into the small stand.

“And some of my favorite customers, if my eyes don’t deceive me,” he grinned.

Angelica waved as Kakashi set her on one of the stools, grabbing a nearby crate so her feet wouldn’t be left hanging. She squeezed his shoulder in gratitude.

The rest of them gave their own greetings as they settled into their seats.

Angelica grabbed a menu as Naruto began ordering, Sakura and Iruka orders following soon after. She tugged on Kakashi’s sleeve and pointed to the pork ramen bowl picture on the laminated menu.

“Pork ramen and a Miso bowl, please,” he requested.

Teuchi confirmed the order and called to his daughter to start the food.

“You seem comfortable,” Sakura giggled, cheeks blushing and gaze sly.

The nosy glee of her chakra made Angelica’s headache worse.

Iruka and Naruto mirrored her, even if the teacher’s curiosity was less intense.

“I help her with her grocery runs, sometimes,” Kakashi dismissed, nose in his book.

Naruto snorted inelegantly.

“Yeah and I can mind-read the old ladies I help cross the road,” he said.

Kakashi smiled, innocently.

“If you looked underneath the underneath, you might find it easier to communicate with people,” he said, one finger rising into a lecturing point.

Angelica giggled, vocal chords grinding out that disgusting gurgle. It made her blush in shame and cover her mouth.

Sakura and Iruka gaped a little at the sound; their chakra wasn’t malicious but discomfited shudders made their way through their energy, regardless.

“Was that a laugh?” Naruto asked, incredulous, lips twisted slightly.

Angelica hunched, stomach curling even as she reminded herself that none of them meant it badly.

Kakashi placed a hand on her back.

“Naruto,” he reprimanded, voice soft.

“What?” the boy asked, oblivious.

Whatever Kakashi was about to say was interrupted by their food arriving.

Her messed up voice was forgotten in favor of warm food and easy conversation. Iruka asking Naruto about his time away and listening fondly to the teenager’s boastful stories.

Sakura giggled and supplied her own commentary as needed, playfully scolding her teammate when he got too rowdy.

Angelica focused on her food, eyes crinkling when Kakashi somehow slurped down all of his ramen in the moments when his students weren’t looking.

In one of those moments he grinned and winked at her when his mask was down. She couldn’t help her gurgling laugh when he did, nearly choking on her noodles.

Mercifully, Naruto and the others were too embroiled in some story from when the boy was abroad. Angelica practically absorbed his cheer and the soft enjoyment of everyone around her, but her day was finally catching up to her. The anxiety attacks of the past week and her aching legs tugging her eyelids towards the earth.

“Tired?” Kakashi asked, quietly.

She nodded, drooping so she could lean on his shoulder. His body gave off heat like a furnace and the weighted buzz of his chakra soothed her.

Kakashi shifted to support her weight, something unbearably fond curling in his chest.

He raised his voice to be heard over Naruto and Sakura’s brief squabble.

“I’m taking Aiko home,” he announced as Angelica pulled her wallet out of her sash and paid their bill.

Sakura and Naruto suddenly straightened, realizing they had missed their chance to interrogate their teacher.

“W—wait,” Naruto tried to say as Angelica got on Kakashi’s back and he grabbed her crutches, using them to support her legs.

He didn’t teleport or whatever it was called when he used chakra to disappear in a swirl of leaves, conscientious of her condition and chakra sensitivity. He simple began walking away in an easy ground-eating stride, ignoring his students’ protests with a casual wave and a smile.

She fell asleep to the rhythm of his steps and the sense-smell of his chakra.

Blood and lightning.


	10. Fear

_Ah._

_This again._

_The flower petals around her had opened by a few increments, letting her see the endless mirror waters of the garden around her. Flowers swayed at the edges of the lake; no wind rippled the waters._

_Beauty: in silence and reflection._

_A mountain of fur blocked her view; a glowing eye peeked at her._

_“Hello pretty thing,” it rumbled, gusting her hair back from her face with breath that smelled like rotted meat._

_Teeth glittered at her, stained with blood, an arm hung limply from between sharp ivory._

_She had no voice, still._

_“I wonder why you drew me in again,” it mused, “not close to death now, are you, little flower?”_

_She shook her head._

_Lightning danced between the great beast’s teeth as it chuckled. Her hair lifted from her neck, pulled by errant static._

_It hummed, contemplative, eye slitting like a cat._

_“On the continent of that poisoned tree, are you?” it turned to peer with it’s other eye, “far away, yet reaching me so easy—,” the eye dilated with something like surprise, “one of my own,” it hissed, dark nose pushing into the petals and huffing as it took desperate sniffs, “left behind_ there _on that fucking cesspit of a continent!” it ended with a roar._

_Thunder boomed, a storm forming on the horizon and blackening the waters._

_Angelica bore its enraged bellows easily, knowing with a dreamer’s surety that it wouldn’t be able to get her._

_The beast roared and the water frothed, so Angelica leaned forward to close her eyes, breathing in blood and ozone._

.

.

.

She woke up in her bed, a note on the pillow next to her. She grabbed her glasses off the floor after a few clumsy grasps and put them on.

_‘Sleep well! I had to catch up on some work, we can hang out later.’_

It was signed with a heno-heno-moheji.

She smiled and buried her face in her pillow.

Trust Kakashi to brush off everything so easily. She tried to move only to gasp at the prickling sharp pain that suffused her legs.

She groaned as she dragged herself out of her futon and pulled herself into her wheelchair. Conveniently, it was right next to her bed. Angelica sent a quick thank you into the air for Kakashi.

She rolled around, mood light despite her pain, making breakfast and journeying down to her post box to grab her mail.

Sachiko’s letter was a long ramble about her most current finds in comics and books. One mention of a cute girl she met while trawling through the food vendors. Unfortunately, she was tourist.

Kimiko’s letter was practically a scientific article. According to the worn spotted paper she was somewhere in the land of Iron inspecting historical sites. She claimed to have found a sample of unusual chakra. She theorized that it was an ancient strain and proceeded to explain what that meant.

Angelica’s head throbbed just trying to find her way through the scientific jargon. She set that letter on a pile of similar papers, various notes stacked beside it along with a dictionary. She had barely started to make her way through earlier correspondence.

Mama’s letter was perfunctory as the women herself. It asked after her health and situation, and congratulated her on her recovery. It came with a lotus earring that had the kanji for purity and void etched on the back.

_Be ready._

She didn’t know what it could mean, but she would be prepared. It was time to start paying back her debt to the _Lotus._

She put it on immediately, pulling out one of her silver studs. She admired the contrast of the delicate white petals against her dark skin in the mirror.

The rest of the girls sent letters wishing her well. She gleaned that Mamoru and Yuki had become an item. Apparently, they were sickeningly sweet with each other. The girls found the space to complain about the couple’s domestic bliss and coo over their cuteness at least once in all their letters.

Izumi offered advice and sent a bunch of natural herbs to help with relaxation and pain.

They were promptly used to make a tea so aromatic it made Angelica’s eyes water just from the steam. It _did_ help her legs, though. About an hour after she drank the liquid, the throbbing ache that had taken up residence in her hips and knees had faded.

Her day had only just begun, though. It was up to her to find a way to master whatever it was that caused animals to kill themselves for her. She bit her lip and stared contemplatively into her bowl of rice.

It was her panic that had caused the commotion. It made her stomach lurch with sickness thinking that a bad day could mean the death of anything, never mind that they were animals. She’d felt their mad emotions from the moment she saw them to the moment they died.

She wasn’t unaccustomed to sensing uncomfortable emotions. With her range so wide and her sensitivity, she played unwilling voyeur to a gamut of personal tragedies and private feelings.

Working at a whorehouse hadn’t lessened her exposure, but it had helped her learn to control her intake. Somehow, she had to figure out how to _project_. It seemed impossible, not in the least because she had tried to find some kind of power to manipulate when she had first discovered her talent.

Sachiko had asked her if she was constipated too many times and Angelica had given up, pink-cheeked. Apparently, all she needed was to be nearly raped and murdered to awaken her potential.

Animals were easy; her general mood seemed to move them as surely as the moon pulled the tides. People were a harder nut to crack. It terrified her that she could use her power to hurt someone, but everyone was so much _stronger_ than she was. This power could _kill_ people, but it could also be her salvation.

She wouldn’t have to fear every person that walked past her in the street. She wouldn’t sit in her apartment, trembling, flinching at every ninja that passed though her senses. Waiting for someone, anyone, to come break down her door and just— _take._

Angelica _needed_ this.


	11. Gear Tumbling

She spent the next few days figuring out the limits of her weird Pet Cemetery effect field. Turned out that the more she practiced the less time she spent with a debilitating migraine—bad news was that she still couldn’t figure out how to make people react to her emotions.

Daisuke had asked her if she was constipated the last few times until she had given up, but she had ended up with a few animal friends. Edna was her favorite; a little gray mouse that never left her side and spent most of her time tucked into the folds of her kimono top or napping in her obi. The birds that had built a nest above her window liked leaving seeds on the sill and the raccoon that took up residence near her trash absolutely loved the leftovers she put out for her whenever she made food.

It turned easy once she had figured out how to separate her chakra-sense and her emotional reactions. It was hard to explain fully, even to herself, but the part of her that _reached_ out into the world to feel could be separated from her moods when she concentrated. If she was caught off guard, though, she had an unfortunate habit of driving the local wildlife to suicide.

Funnily enough, through exposure, it seemed that the animals closest to her could bear the brunt of her panic better than others. Edna was the best, going so far as to try and _comfort_ her when she had a panic attack, rather than flee or hide like her birds and raccoon.

She maintained her pattern of practice for the next two weeks, rolling down to Yakiniku Q to visit Jun every so often and spending her days at the park. She used her chair for nearly everything, cautious of her legs cramping up. Luckily, Daisuke helped her with physical therapy so she _was_ recovering.

“You really need to get rid of that thing,” Daisuke sighed tapping his chopsticks against the side of his bowl.

Angelica scowled, moving a hand to cover Edna as she fed the little mouse a grape.

Teuchi chuckled as he set down her bowl, receiving a smile from the woman.

Daisuke rolled his eyes in the way only teenagers could.

“I’m not telling you to kill it or anything, but you don’t know where it’s _been._ You don’t have any chakra to defend yourself if it gives you some kind of virus or plague or what-have-you.”

Angelica waved him off, leaning down to pet the cat twining around her ankles and pluck the flower it had brought her from the nearby overhang from its jaws. It purred pleasantly and chewed contently on the piece of pork she gave it from her ramen bowl.

Angelica tucked the red passionflower behind her ear. The vines that hung from the eaves and twined through the fences had begun blooming recently. Their bright spots of color splashed across the streets and their native chakra buzzed with the excitement of pollination. It made Angelica’s molars vibrate, an almost unpleasant sensation. Late-summer warmth turned the air muggy and beaded dew on the stairways and railings after rain. Angelica had nearly face planted more than once trying to navigate the treacherous ground with her crutches.

“Well, I’m up for promotion to shift supervisor soon,” Daisuke informed her proudly, slurping down a mouthful of noodles, “I’ll be more busy but I’ll have more—I mean it’s a very fortunate position for someone as young as me.”

He’d turned sixteen recently—or was it seventeen?

More influence to help out the _Lotus_ and provide more access for Mama. As little information as Angelica had on everything, she knew that having contacts in a Hidden Village could only be beneficial for the brothel.

Angelica patted his arm, feeling the prickle of his shy happiness and friendly regard. He flushed, pleased under her praise, silent as it was.

“You’ve been stretching like I said? If you keep it up you should be walking without those crutches soon.”

He sent an amused look towards where they were propped beside her. They were banged up from falls and rough handling and doodled with Hangeul and katakana, random English and Spanish phrases to encourage her not to give up.

Angelica nodded, sipping at her broth.

They ate silently for a few more minutes.

Then Daisuke paid for their food with a smile and a promise to visit next week. His excitement sparked across her senses, happy to go meet his civilian boyfriend. They rarely got to spend time together as he liked to complain frequently. Both of them were in the closet and rarely got to spend time together alone.

Angelica pinched his side with a sly grin.

He blushed and slapped lightly at her hand.

“Aiko-san,” he whined, “don’t give me that look.”

Angelica widened her eyes in innocence, gesturing to convey ‘ _Who? Me?’._

Daisuke snorted, saying a quick goodbye to Teuchi as he left and sticking his tongue out at Angelica’s cheerful wave.

She was grabbing her crutches and getting ready to wander back to her apartment when she felt Kakashi’s chakra at the outer gates. Weak, fluttery and approaching at ridiculous speed. She bit down viciously on the urge to beeline for the gates to greet him. His energy was barely there.

It would be suspicious, though. Even if she was chakra null, a range wide enough to feel one signature, even if it was unique, at the gates from the inner city was near impossible. At least according to most beliefs.

She gritted her teeth and began to limp towards her apartment. She could meet up with him tomorrow with a bullshit excuse about having heard some gossip about him returning.

Easy.

 

Not so easy.

Naruto continued to chatter, tugging Angelica along with a grip just shy of bruising. Not that the kid knew it, he seemed amazingly oblivious to her condition considering he and his teammate had been breathtakingly nosy about it when they first met. Luckily, he was going slowly enough that she hadn’t tripped over her crutches yet.

“Gaara’s Kazekage now, which is cool, but also kinda bullshit. I mean he’s super awesome and a good friend, but I kinda feel left behind? I’m happy for him—but, y’know?”

No she didn’t know, but she knew this whole situation from the outside. Friend feeling left behind because someone they love achieved their goal before them. It was a mix of happiness and pride with a swirl of shame and even a shade of resentment. The feelings rung clear in the teenager’s chakra.

She nodded along, incapable of doing much else with her hands occupied with walking and imprisoned by the vice of Naruto’s grip.

“To top it all off this jerk just attacks me in the middle of the street! With these weird ink drawings, too.”

So that was the disturbance she felt earlier. Most jutsu were confined to the training grounds. The burst of chakra in one of the side streets had barely registered with her other than the fact that Naruto had been in the middle of it.

“Kakashi-sensei is in the hospital and we just arrived yesterday so you probably don’t know, but he’ll be super happy to see his _girlfriend~._ ”

Angelica sighed and smiled at his devious enthusiasm. She remembered the days when she was younger and every meeting between men and women was salacious. Especially with her older friends and cousins. Living in a brothel had killed what was left of those behaviors quickly. It was enjoyable to feel the simple emotion from Naruto; it helped her ignore the seething redness that lurked under his chakra, filled with black malice. A lattice of burning, bright chakra held it in a ball, barely contained.

She nearly stumbled into the kid’s back when he came to an abrupt stop in front of the hospital. Angelica grunted and checked Edna, making sure the mouse was still safely napping in her obi. Naruto strode into the lobby, oddly careful as he helped Angelica through the door. Then he began to heckle the staff at the front desk for his teacher’s room number and a visitor’s pass.

Angelica felt bad for the girl manning the desk, looking frazzled with a browbeaten roughness to her chakra. Angelica yelped wetly when the boy easily lifted her and took a few bone rattling jumps up the stairs and took off at a sprint towards Kakashi’s chakra.

She curled and tamped down on the nauseous lurching of her stomach, feeling the clamp of Akihito’s fingers in the place of Naruto’s. His chakra burned against her cheek, overbearing. Edna began wriggling.

Angelica took a deep breath when Naruto set her down on Kakashi’s bed, grinning and looking proud of himself. He rubbed a finger under his nose. Kakashi made a startled noise, putting down his book and reaching for her. She had only a moment to let Edna out of her obi to flee to the other corner of the room before she began trembling.

“Naruto what happened?”

“What—I mean nothing happened I just picked her up.”

“ _Did you ask her first?”_

“N—no, I just—I thought it would be faster.”

“Aiko—shh, Aiko come here you need to sit up.”

_In for one. Out for two._

_In one. Out two._

_One. Two._

When she finally unclenched and clawed her way out of the anxious cycle of terrifying memories she was curled up next to Kakashi, Naruto wringing his hands near the door.

Kakashi met her gaze with his dark eye.

“Good?”

She hiccupped, wiping at her tears, and nodded.

Naruto nearly leapt forward, only restrained by Kakashi’s forbidding look and upraised arm.

“I’m sorry Aiko-san! I really am, I didn’t know it would hurt you or anything.”

Aiko waved him off weakly, giving him a watery, forgiving smile.

Kakashi sighed opening an arm to let Angelica burrow under. She practically melded to his side like a static cling, burying her head into his neck and diving headfirst into the soothing cadence of his energy.

“Naruto, Aiko has had some bad experiences with people grabbing her. It’s always best to ask people before you carry them off if it isn’t a critical situation.”

Naruto shifted, shame-faced.

“I really, really didn’t know.”

Angelica tapped at Kakashi’s bicep, nudging his chin with her forehead. He conceded.

“Just learn from the experience so it doesn’t happen again.”

He readjusted the blankets to slide the woman under with him, chakra humming with a hint of satisfaction and content.

Naruto wobbled again, but returned the tired smile Angelica sent him from under the blankets. He left in a hurry, embarrassed and uncomfortable, muttering something about finding a new teammate.

Edna crawled up onto the bed. Kakashi made a startled sound, but Angelica pinched at his bicep before he could do something unadvised.

_This is Edna._

“Pet mice? Is this a thing you’re doing now?”

Angelica slapped him lightly in the arm and readjusted on his shoulder, letting Edna settle on her lap. Her hand traced letters into his bicep.

_I let you out of my sight for a second and you end up in the hospital._

He hummed, flipping a page in his book.

_I’m going to bring you food next time, will the hospital stop me?_

“No, but would you do this suffering man a favor and bring me some miso soup with eggplant. No foreign stuff.”

_Are you insulting the cooking of my native land?_

She joked, giggling.

“I would _never,_ I just have a craving is all. Hospital food is bland, unadventurous; beyond disappointing.” He sighed.

_Miso soup isn’t very adventurous._

“Shh—let me live my best life.”

Angelica sputtered and giggled, pushing his hand away from her mouth. She lost her energy quickly, eyes drooping with the shadows making their way across the floor.

“Sleep Aiko, no one will disturb you.”

So she slept.

.

.

.

The waters of her garden were dripping with red.

**_I come._ **

Something giggled, discordant with the voices of thousands: women, men, children, and grandparents.

**_I see something new or something old? Or is it something all for me?_ **

Angelica peered out into the dark sky, empty of stars. Eyes stared back at her, all colors and shapes. Some were crying, others swirling with panic, but most stared at her intently. Red dripped from sharp-toothed mouths as they spoke.

**_Little flower, so pretty, so pure; upset that dog didn’t you, made the Devourer angry and frothing._ **

Hands rose from the surface of the water like grotesque blooms, grasping for the sky. Angelica frowned. This was _her_ place. With that thought the waters cleared, hands shriveling into nothing as the sky turned a beautiful cloudy blue.

It screeched.

**_Rude child! Rude! Rude!_ **

A huddled form complained, impaled by spikes. It dripped and gurgled as it lurched towards her half-opened flower. Its face was peeled of skin, muscles bare and twitching, and its eyes were a cloudy white.

**_Pretty._ **

It sighed, breath fogging over her petals.

It smelled sweet, like almonds, like arsenic.

**_Lovely, so lovely. Will you change it? Make it right? Bring more pain, the cleansing pain?_ **

Angelica felt something like pity for the creature, terrifying as is was.

She tried to say ‘ _I don’t know’_ or ‘ _what do you mean’,_ but the sound wouldn’t come out. So she just watched as it shuffled away dissolving into a red splash that faded from the reflection of the clear sky without a whisper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's kind of filler, but I need a transitional chapter before we get a move on. Angelica is my baby and she and Kakashi are the next level BFF's.


	12. Exit Scene

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hallo, im back. This thing has been sitting in my drafts for MONTHS and i realize im never going to be satisfied with it. Tear it apart at your own discretion

She woke up with a furrow between her brows, a foreign sadness clinging to her lips like salt. Kakashi breathed slowly next to her, book open on his chest as if he had fallen asleep reading. She smiled at the picture he made.

There was no way to avoid waking him up when she got out of the bed, tangled up as they were.

Kakashi hummed quietly and clutched her tighter for just a second; chakra buzzing and sliding over her skin before letting her go. She patted his chest and slid out of bed, tucking a sleeping Edna in her readjusted obi and grabbing her crutches to stand with minimal stumbling. Soon she’d only need a cane to get around.

In a much better mood, though still nursing a slight headache, she began her journey back to her apartment. It was dark out, stars twinkling through the light radiation of the streetlamps. Her legs ached wonderfully as she walked, none of the shooting pain of injury, only the pleasant burn of a workout. It made her almost giddy, but she was cautious of trying to walk on her own, not eager to have a relapse.

She checked her mail on the way in, tucking the sheaf of envelopes under her arm as she fumbled with her keys. She tossed them onto her coffee table as she began making meal preparations for tomorrow. Curry base set simmering and eggplant taken from the freezer to thaw. She would make the miso before heading out to visit Kakashi the next day.

She covered the pot and went to sit on her couch, flipping through her mail idly. Junk mail for the most part, except for one. It was blank, only a beautiful drawing of a lotus printed over the seal. Goosebumps broke out across her shoulders as she carefully slid a penknife under the wax.

_Kimiko will arrive in two days, you are needed._

That was all. No explanation, no greeting, and in Mama’s impeccable penmanship.

Angelica straightened. It was sooner than she thought, but she needed to get ready immediately. She rose and hobbled to her room, ripping through it like a whirlwind, packing all of her necessities. She grabbed her clothes at random, uncaring of matching sets. She paused over a scarf embroidered with a cartoonish dog slobbering on the Konoha symbol. It was a gift from Kakashi, when they had last gone to the market for groceries. She carefully folded it and placed it in her bag.

She finished packing in time to manage her meal prep and put it in the fridge for the next day easily. She lingered in front of the door of the open fridge, stark light illuminating the cake leftover from her trip to the bakery down the street. Kakashi had insisted that something called carrot cake couldn’t possibly taste good; competitive as he was he couldn’t back down when she called him an unadventurous wimp. Her lips tugged down with melancholy. She’d miss him terribly, but hopefully he’d be able to visit Tanzaku in the future. Konoha had been a great vacation while it lasted.

She closed the door.

Kakashi scarfed down the eggplant curry in record time, practically moaning in satisfaction. The bright glow of pride from a meal well done made Edna strut across the blankets like a show dog and pulled Angelica’s lips into a smile. Kakashi grinned at the dramatic mouse as she crawled over his leg and sat primly on his knee as if waiting for praise for a meal she had no part in preparing. It made Angelica laugh.

“That was one of the best meals I’ve had in awhile,” he informed the mouse gravely.

The mouse shivered with glee before running to leap into Angelica’s lap.

Her smile faded slightly as Kakashi finished his meal. His sharp teeth flashed as he pulled his mask back to the bridge of his nose. She’d never gotten the chance to ask if he filed them or not, all signs pointed to no. Human teeth just weren’t shaped like that.

_I need to tell you something._

Kakashi stopped in the act of opening his book, his open eye narrowed as he took in her serious expression.

She fiddled with one of his fingers, nervous, before tracing the letters in his palm.

 _They need me back at the_ Lotus _now that I’m more recovered, I’m leaving tomorrow._

Startle, sadness.

“Well,” he hummed, “that’s rather abrupt.”

Protectiveness.

“Do you really have to go back?”

Angelica felt her face crease into a fond smile, endeared by her friend’s worry.

_Yeah, I miss the other girls._

“They could visit you here.”

His chakra rose, possessive and stubborn.

Angelica frowned at the white hospital sheets, squinting against the sudden flare of energy that crackled across the fibers.

_This isn’t a request I have to go back Kakashi._

“So you can get broken again? You barely survived long enough to get to Konoha, and if you work at a brothel like that it’ll only get worse.”

Angelica tamped down firmly on the outrage that licked under her skin at his presumption, even more simmering lowly at his implications about the _Lotus._

_I’m not discussing this with you._

She moved to stand, scowl firmly set on her lips. She really didn’t want to end their last conversation for a while on a sour note, but it truly made something angry tighten around her head like a steel band to hear Kakashi cast the _Lotus_ in such an unfavorable light. Edna squeaked and snarled the best she could from Angelica’s obi, catching the edges of the woman’s frustration.

Kakashi caught her hand as she moved her crutches to leave.

“Aiko, you don’t _have_ to go back, you can find a job in Konoha— _I_ can find you a job here.”

Distress, singing down her arm in a heavy roll and an edge of that heavy grief he kept clutched close.

She felt tears prick at her eyes from the intensity, but snatched her hand away.

 _“I’m going,”_ she signed in the Konoha code, avoiding his gaze.

As she made her way to the door, she felt him begin to move and cast the best glare she could at him, stopping the ninja in his tracks.

His chakra curled with frustration and regret as she opened the door and walked out.

 

“How did you like Konoha?”

Kimiko said around a rice ball, other hand occupied with keeping the oxen pulling the cart in order.

Angelica shrugged and bit into her own meal with gusto. It was a Haru special, made with plum filling.

“Less scary than you expected?”

Angelica shook her head in denial, enjoying the breeze that made the leaves of the trees ripple around them like a turbulent sea.

It was just as scary as she expected and more, having ninja at nearly every corner flaring their chakra and appearing out of nowhere.

“Aw, poor Aicchan,” Kimiko mocked playfully, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear as she finished the last of her snack.

Angelica flicked her in the arm and fed a piece of rice to Edna.

Daisuke had been teary-eyed when he waved her off at the village gates, forcing a metric ton of teas and pain-relievers in her hands and making her to promise to watch her legs; use her braces, take frequent rests, etcetera.

Kakashi hadn’t showed up.

Kimiko made quick friends with Edna, the mouse happily sitting herself right in front of the woman’s bun and using the hair like a couch. Angelica wished she had a camera if only for that one visual. It was one of many inconveniences that plagued her because of the weird anachronistic soup that was the Elemental Nations. She was relieved to see a familiar face, though. She’d gotten a little teary eyed when Kimiko had swept her into a hug when she first saw her; the smooth subtle flow of her chakra was so comforting compared to the blaring signals of most of the ninja in Konoha. Though, it _was_ odd to see Kimiko in travel clothes. Her cargo jacket was dusty and functional, while her shorts were unflatteringly baggy but had a wealth of pockets. It was a stark departure from her put-together look from when she was working at the _Lotus._

_Why does Mama need me home so bad?_

Kimiko’s hand was rough with callouses from handling knives and the copper taste of her chakra stuck to the back of Angelica’s tongue like a heady wine. The woman pursed her lips around the phantom sensation as Kimiko blew out a heavy breath of air. Her feelings radiated murkily.

Fondness, a kind of diligence, curiosity.

Angelica wished she could read minds instead of emotions sometimes, because that sequence told her absolutely nothing about what the other woman might be thinking.

“It’s a mission only you can help with—y’know with the—,” she wriggled her fingers near her temple in demonstration.

Something that needed her sensing ability?

She felt a scowl tug her lips down.

 _Now_ Mama wanted her help with something? After going to all the trouble to shelter her and keep her in the dark, _now_ she needed something?

 _Are we even going back to the_ Lotus?

Kimiko made a noncommittal sound as she pulled away to fiddle with the reigns of the oxen pulling the cart.

Guilt and a little exasperation made it to Angelica, who nearly bared her teeth with irritation.

_What is it?_

_Where are we going?_

Kimiko winced when Angelica’s nails dug into the skin of her shoulder, not interested in being gentle in the throes of her upset.

“We’ve gotten word of a shipment making its way to the capital,” Kimiko sighed.

Angelica flapped her hands in frustration.

“Sweet Sage—calm down,” Kimiko scowled, “I need to explain some shit first.”

Angelica sat back and crossed her arms, chin tilted at a sour angle. Edna leaped from Kimiko’s head to sit primly in Angelica’s lap.

“So—history first,” Kimiko straightened her shoulders and stared into the middle distance.

“A few centuries ago there was a nomadic tribe that wandered the trade routes between the islands off the coast of the Land of Water and the, at the time, newly discovered _Girisha.”_

Kimiko fiddled with the reigns as Angelica twisted to tuck her legs up onto the bench, grimacing at the slight burn in her hip. Better to get comfortable—Kimiko never gave up the chance to talk history.

“They were seafaring and quite popular as merchantmen and transports, but for unknown reasons they decided to leave the nomadic lifestyle and settle on the Isle of Whirlpool, near the coast of the Land of Fire.”

“Historians theorize that it might have had to do with the original tribal leaders being usurped during a famine in trade caused by a war on the _Girisha_ continent and the rise of Nindo in the elemental nations. When they settled they all collectively took the name Uzumaki.”

Angelica blinked and wondered, for a moment, about Naruto. She wondered why he was in Konoha or if he’d gone there for work.

Kimiko scowled.

“Not that anyone knows for sure—no one can access the historical records held in Whirlpool, no one can even get to the island anymore.”

Angelica poked Kimiko’s side.

“Oh—anyway, what made the Uzumaki so valuable as tradesmen was the fact that they had such advanced knowledge on sealing. _Girisha,_ culturally, doesn’t really focus on the physical arts of chakra manipulation—nearly all of their needs in war and technology are taken care of using unique seal techniques. The Uzumaki were specialists in manipulating time and space, making month-long journeys in weeks and inventing stasis seals before the masters even understood that it might be _possible_.”

Kimiko’s eyes glittered.

“There _are_ drawbacks, however: seals take time to make and require extreme focus in studies. They’re not really great for the pitched battles that characterize the current landscape of conflict, where people die left and right. A seal master with thirty years of learning to be effective could be killed in under a minute.”

Angelica bit her lip and waved her hands, unsure of how this applied to them. _She_ wasn’t going into battle anytime soon.

Kimiko rolled her eyes.

“Fine, whatever—anyway, that was a few centuries ago and they kept innovating since then. The entire Island of Whirlpool is a technological seal _marvel._ Only the descendants of the original Uzumaki tribes can go there now, though.”

Kimiko chuckled, bitterness rising in her chakra.

“Not that it matters. None of the Uzumaki that could remember the old seals to re-access the Island are alive.”

_What happened?_

Angelica didn’t like where this was going.

Kimiko’s expression gentled as her chakra fluttered apologetically.

“Whirlpool kept growing in leaps and bounds—they also allied with Konoha in the beginning of the Hidden Villages. Uzumaki Mito married Senju Hashirama and shared a lot of their advanced sealing with him.”

Kimiko paused and smiled at a cart that passed them by, lips sealed around her next words. The cart driver waved cheerfully as they passed.

“Kiri—Whirlpool’s nearest neighbor, didn’t really like this alliance. Not to mention that, though Mito was a prominent figure among the Uzumaki she was bound not to tell their true secrets to the Senju. They were in a dark mistrustful time.”

Kimiko sighed.

“A few decades ago it got out into the intelligence community that Whirlpool had developed a seal weapon capable of completely destroying any shinobi force—even a Village if applied directly—and, of course they refused to share.”

Angelica’s lips flattened. It was like hearing a weird magical version of the development of a nuclear bomb. Konoha was _huge,_ if she were pressed she would say that there were at least a 700,000 people that lived there. A relatively minor population where she was from, but pretty large for this time and place. If other Villages were the same, it was a loss of life that could cripple a country.

“They refused sharing with Konoha as well and—well, I won’t go into the politics because at that point it turns into a game of theory and hearsay, but suffice to say, the entire village was eliminated by Kiri.”

Kimiko smirked—anger burning like a hot coal in Angelica’s senses.

“I wonder how they got the inside info to break the Whirlpool stronghold?” she asked herself mockingly, “but the result was genocide of the Uzumaki Tribes wherever they showed their faces—their hair was usually a pretty distinctive red that was even rarer back in the day than it is now.”

“But, before the Island locked down, some of their sealing relics and technology made it out—they got scattered with the people that fled Whirlpool. Little pockets of sealing so enhanced that they could make decades of innovation possible in only a year if they could be studied.”

Kimiko shifted, excitement reaching out to brush under Angelica’s chin.

“The _Lotus_ network got word that the Water Daimyo, found a relic—one that none of the specialists that took a crack at it could access and he plans to gift it to the Fire Daimyo next week.”

Kimiko threw an arm over Angelica’s shoulder.

“Our job is to infiltrate the court and retrieve the relic,” she laughed.

Angelica felt her expression pull into something puzzled and pouting.

_Why? What good can we do with it?_

Kimiko had just said that no one had any luck with the ‘relic’, or whatever. What could Mama possibly want with it?

Kimiko grinned smugly.

“We have our own Uzumaki—someone who has enough of knowledge of the Old Arts that she might be able to crack the code,” she whispered, her chakra jittering with glee.

“Aiko, don’t you get it? The seals of Whirlpool were so dangerous because they didn’t require direct chakra application— _anyone_ could use them, even you.”

Angelica’s heart skipped a beat.

“We could train any of our girls, we wouldn’t _need_ shinobi for anything! Can you imagine how many digs I could go on?”

Kimiko drifted into a wonderland of her own making, sighing happily.

Angelica felt something cold settle in her chest. She read plenty of history—dry, plain texts from the Konoha library to help expand her vocabulary and ones in her own world. A landscape of genocide and warfare on a scale the people of the Elemental nations couldn’t imagine. Millions of lives—lost.

_What if someone finds out we took them?_

Something like the widespread use of Uzumaki seals could cause absolute _chaos_. Not just from the obvious thought of them getting into the wrong hands. The government of this time and place was feudal styled with a bit of military dictatorship thrown in for spice. Technology was strangled into near nonexistence outside of favored city-centers and the Hidden Villages. The power over the nation balanced precariously between the shinobi and the ruling nobles of the land.

There position built on the backs of their civilians and the ‘protection’ they offered from other lands and villages.

Considering what Kimiko had told her—just the threat of the _existence_ of Uzumaki outside their Village had been met with genocide. The books that Angelica had read only mentioned Whirlpool in passing, saying that Konoha had taken in refugees and took up their symbol as a sign of their respect. According to public records, though, there were no Uzumaki in the Village today—except Naruto. But, he hadn’t been mentioned in any of the registries.

She’d had a week were she’d done nothing but read through the family registries, curious about Clans and bloodlines and the fact that, according to Kakashi, his unique chakra came from his heritage.

The Uzumaki registry had caught her eye because of a few things: how it started barely a few decades ago and the fact that the last generation had died nearly outrageously young. Every one of them fell to one accident or another before they could have any children.

With the new information from Kimiko and the fact that Konoha was a military dictatorship Angelica didn’t have to think to hard to come to the obvious conclusion about the ‘accidents’ that assailed the Uzumaki refugees in Konoha.

She folded over her knees and breathed through the realization.

Edna squeaked and scrabbled at her sleeve in concern as Kimiko rolled her eyes and patted Angelica on the back.

“Don’t overthink it—you know Mama’s smart.”

Angelica grunted.

Maybe she should have stayed in Konoha.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ive come out the end of this with the sure knowledge that Kakashi and Angelica are in a Queerplatonic kind of space. I want to involve Naruto and them being badass and Angelica getting her moment to shine--but like she'll SNAP IN HALF if i put her in a battle so we're off to explore politics and the reason why she's in this world in the first place.


End file.
